Cultural brain rot, Gen Z, and making disciples

My hope is that this article will ‘cook’, that it will be ‘lit bussin’ and ‘very mindful, very demure’. If that made sense to you, then you are probably under 25. If not, you might have read about a recent trend of letting Gen Zers write the scripts for various adverts; Curry's and an 880-year-old bed and breakfast accommodation have racked up millions of views on social media platforms by following this trend. I even tried it myself, much to the embarrassment of my children.

A young Australian senator delivered a Gen Z slang-ridden speech which has been declared brain rot. Brain rot is a slang term used to describe internet content of low quality or value, or the negative effects caused by it. Basically, as we spend excessive amounts of time online, it suggests that this is leading to a deterioration in our cognitive functions and attention span.

Brain rot is sometimes used as a joke and sometimes as a jibe, but Gen Zers seem more self aware about the implications of life online than we give them credit for. This is a much wider problem—Boomers can spend too much time distracted or falling down rabbit holes on Facebook, Gen Xers on X (formerly Twitter), Millennials on Instagram and Gen Zers on TikTok. Recent riots, elections, global conflicts all show the real world impact of life online. 

The evidence is clear, smart phones and social media have led to people spending less time with friends, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and dopamine addiction for the next hit.

Jonathan Haidt has written a brilliant book entitled, The Anxious Generation, about how we are ​“overprotecting children in the real world and under protecting them online.” The evidence is clear, smart phones and social media have led to people spending less time with friends, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and dopamine addiction for the next hit. All of this has led to a decline in young people’s mental health, and Haidt offers actionable solutions to help both our kids and us become mature, emotionally stable adults.

My children have limits on all the apps on their phones, but I recently put a few on my own phone. Doom scrolling (flicking up bad news stories, negative commentary, and conflict-amplifying memes) can easily afflict us all. The next step might be to take these apps off my phone all together—but I note my lack of commitment to actually do this.

I think cultural brain rot is real. We can easily while away hours on memes, reels, and epic fail videos. We can fall down rabbit holes with the help of click bait drawing us into conspiracies and filter bubbles, enticing us into echo chambers that feed our biases. We can click for next-day delivery—easy consumerism to help curate our image. We can binge on Netflix while simultaneously scrolling on our phones. 

It’s easy to point the finger at others but most of us consume vast amounts of social media content—more than we care to admit. And this content is full of cultural stories that are constantly shaping us, but also failing us. 

Cultural stories

There are three underlying cultural stories that we regularly encounter. They are rarely explicit, but underpin the books we read, shows we watch and adverts we consume. Secularism describes life in an age in which spiritual possibility, transcendence, and the presence of God seem implausible. But, secularism is in real trouble—stuck in a death spiral. It turns out that eliminating the transcendent isn’t satisfactory because most of us hope there is something more to life than the here and now. And so, people are seeking a spiritual experience or encounter in all sorts of spaces. I think there is more openness to faith in secular societies than at any time in recent history.

The second cultural story is individualism—where the self is the primary unit of concern, and meaning is found by giving expression to my feelings and desires. We are told that to flourish, we need to be free to project ourselves out into the world as we see fit. We are to be authentic and true to ourselves rather than be shaped by society, or previous generations, or religion. David Foster Wallace comments, ​“Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid person in existence.” But, individualism has led to increasing levels of loneliness—it turns out that we are wired for relationships. 

Finally, postmodernism rejects the certainty of modernism—that science has all the answers. So far, so good, but it has also led to constant disruption and deconstruction. When someone says ​‘well, that’s subjective’ or ​‘that’s just your interpretation’ or ​‘speak your truth’ they are, consciously or not, reflecting a postmodern approach where language is ambiguous and truth is subjective or constructed. But the constant drive to deconstruct and destabilize risks leaving no shared foundations on which to base our lives.

A simplistic culture war is neither accurate nor helpful.

Discipleship

We live in God’s good creation, and so there are glimmers of truth in each of these cultural stories. A simplistic culture war is neither accurate nor helpful.

But we do have to acknowledge that the truths in our cultural stories have been fractured and isolated from the rest of the God story. Like fragments of a shattered mirror, those fractured shards can be helpful but also harmful. We see a partial reflection, an incomplete picture, but even as we hold the fragment, we can feel the sharp edges against our skin. 

We have to replace these fragments of the truth within the larger story and the biblical eco-system—into the good, true, and beautiful story of what it means to be made in the image of God. 

The risk of brain rot is real, but the gospel opportunities are equally real. The cultural story is weaker than we think and the God story is stronger than we think. One of Jesus’ methods of cultural engagement was to say, ​“You have heard it said… but I say to you…” He often sought to build cultural bridges as He invited others to follow Him and we should do the same. On that note, Jesus is the GOAT (greatest of all time), a sleeper hit (a surprising find), and he is low-key sending me; are you in?

Originally published by Evangelical Alliance UK. Republished with permission.

Peter Lynas oversees the advocacy team and the work of the Alliance across the four UK nations. He is passionate about faith in the public square and leads the Being Human project with Jo Frost. He previously worked as a barrister in Belfast before studying theology at Regent College in Vancouver, where he serves on the board. Peter is a regular media commentator, is married to Rose, has two daughters, and loves running.