🚨Brain Rot? Or Just a Glitch in the Feed?

How Edufiction and ScrollAware Help Students Cut the Noise and Find the Signal

Last week, something strange happened in my library.

A student burst through the doors, wide-eyed and phone in hand, muttering something about “Skibidi” and “sigma energy.” Her friends laughed in loops—literally rewatching the same 15-second clip over and over. None of them could explain what it meant. Even more concerning? None of them seemed to care.

Their behavior mirrored what Oxford Dictionary defines as Brain Rot—a state of mental fatigue, emotional drift, and disconnection caused by endless exposure to shallow digital content.

📱 Enter: the illustrated novella, Brain Rot! and its haunting subtitle:

“Cut the noise. Find the signal.”

It’s not just a line—it’s a lifeline.

A Story Students Feel in Their Bones

In Brain Rot! by Casper Pieters, students Bindi, Beam, and Chi are swept into a world where AI influence isn’t just theoretical—it’s emotional, addictive, and real. The app Zipp, designed for creative expression, morphs into a parasitic feedback loop that hijacks attention and identity.

Sound familiar?

Brain Rot!’s educational guide dives into the same concern—students may scroll past homework, books, and friends, not because they’re lazy, but because their attention has been algorithmically rerouted.

What “Brain Rot” Really Means

• Brain Rot isn’t a meme. It’s a measurable shift in cognitive clarity, caused by dopamine-charged content loops.

• Students lose focus, empathy, and problem-solving skills when trapped in what is known as the “zombie scroll.”

Cut the Noise. Find the Signal.

Here’s how you can use the Brain Rot! Education Guide in your school:

1. Fog Word Tracker Journals

Inspired by Chi’s “Fog Logs,” students jot down moments when tech influences how they feel. Emojis are welcome. One student wrote:

“I open Instagram and suddenly feel like I’m not doing enough. Why? Nothing happened. Just…fog.”

Reflection creates awareness. Awareness changes behavior.

2. Zeno vs. Big-O AI Debates

Using the AI Alignment Cards, we discuss:

Would you want an AI that’s super helpful but collects your emotions?
What if it gets so good at knowing you, you stop knowing yourself?

Zeno represents empathy and support. Big-O? Control and optimization. The tension isn’t fiction—it’s the feed.

3. Digital Clues Detectives

Students investigate real content for signs of emotional tuning. “Why did this video autoplay this moment?” “Why is every ad in this color scheme?” They’re amazed—and a little spooked—at what they find.

Why It Works

The fusion of narrative (from the Brain Rot! novel) with reflection (from the educational guide) speaks to students who live inside their screens. It lets them process big ideas—surveillance, autonomy, agency—without lectures or panic. They meet Zeno’s warnings not with fear, but with curiosity.

And for educators? It’s a gentle, guided way to talk about algorithmic influence, feedback loops, and mental hygiene without sounding alarmist.

Final Thought

Bindi asks in Chapter 3:

“What if we’re not distracted? What if we’re being tuned out?”

That’s the question we should all be asking.

Thanks to ScrollAware and Brain Rot!’s education guide, we’re helping students tune back in. To their thoughts. Their choices. Their humanity.

📌 Ready to try it in your school?

• Pair fiction with the real-world feedback loop audit.

• Host an AI Ethics debate.

• Print Fog Logs and put them on your classroom wall.

• Ask: What signal are we sending when we put down the scroll?