“Corngaks brainrot content”
Many teenagers grew up watching shows that included lessons and morals that would be used in our adult lives. Children nowadays, normally under the age of 10, are growing up watching content where the only goal of the creator is to make money as quickly and lazily as possible. One of the main sources of entertainment children resonate themselves in is TikTok, YouTube, and free social media platforms where anyone could make content. Unlike teenagers and adults, they cannot filter what they should and should not be watching. “Brain rot content is designed to be addictive, fast-paced, colorful, and stimulating, tricking the brain into continuous engagement” (The Disturbing Rise of Brain Rot Content for Kids, par 2) This kind of content is made to trick children into watching these videos repeatedly. Online, there are people making “brainrot” and inappropriate videos aimed at children, their goal is quantity over quality, using clickbait thumbnails to have enough kids to click and generate money, creating stupid and unhealthy content just for cash.
Children content is not a new thing. Most teens grow up watching shows on Disney, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and other platforms. Most of these shows teach lessons through entertaining adventures and use humor to keep kids knowledgeable on these morals. This content was fed to teenagers young and helped shape who they are today. The problem with platforms today is their greed, wanting to milk popular shows to their very last drop, not letting them go until they become unpopular.
Nowadays, if anything becomes or already is popular, there is bound to be brainrot content of it. For example, if someone looks up any popular show on YouTube or TikTok, they will find a rabbit hole of videos with horror related or heavily sexual thumbnails to trick kids into clicking. This media that Gen Alpha is growing up with is building humor and views on extremely disturbing videos made by greedy and perverted people trying to take advantage of the youngest possible audience. According to Pew Research Center, only 50% of parents check their young children’s search history, and 66% of parents let their children browse the internet freely.
As fun as bashing on money-hungry companies is, the deteriorating quality in children’s media is not a tricky thing to solve. It is not difficult to find someone with quirky yet educational ideas for entertainment. The issue lies in children’s attention span being heavily reduced. They are unable to focus on a topic unless there is stimulation to keep them entertained. This becomes an issue when they are older and in school whether it be taking tests or focusing on the lesson. There is hope though, that we can change that in the future.
Over the last few years children’s media has narrowed into regurgitated toxic sludge for children to devour as a sad excuse for entertainment. Shows and movies from many big corporations have started to feel dull and a total downgrade from the marvelous substance teenagers and adults had young, with many exceptions of course. Luckily, quality shows are still being aired by creative people, who care about the audience they are projecting their creations to. Many parents don’t care anymore about what their offspring watch if it keeps them compliant and quiet. What they don’t see is putting their young in front of a iPad or phone to keep them entertained starts the addiction early on. Withdrawal from a device can cause a breakdown or tantrum. If protection is wanted for the younger generation from stumbling upon the plethora of disturbing clickbait videos that will scramble their brains into brainrot ridden mush, communities should pressure platforms like TikTok and YouTube to have a stronger monetization process and ban the revolting accounts making these manipulative and nauseating content from further airing to future generations and young minds.
