Scroll sickness

We scroll for fun, laugh until it hurts, and somehow realize our personality is now

just a 15-second absurd reel.

'The internet fried our brains but at least we got good reaction images out of it.'; image: Google, Illustration: Kavya Lajpal

By Kavya Lajpal

There was a time when personality came from the things you loved or believed in.

Now it’s made up of memes you barely remember, ironic jokes you pretend not to

care about, and references that only make sense, if you are always online. Brainrot

is the internet’s favourite joke, and maybe the most honest reflection of who we’ve

become online.

It hits because it feels familiar. You laugh first, and question it later. Like a random

video where someone dramatically says “emotional damage” for no real reason,

maybe, after something tiny like spilling water or losing a game. The reaction is so

exaggerated that it turns an ordinary moment into something absurd. It’s the kind of

humour that makes you pause mid-scroll and think,“Why did that get me?” but youstill send it to your friends anyway, because somehow they will laugh at it just as

much.For Mukkund Pasari, 19, a BBA student at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management

Studies, Mumbai, says,“Brainrot humour shows up in daily conversation. Most of it

comes from reels, and memes I see every day, like those with the viral ‘fahhh’ sound

that pops up when something random or chaotic happens. Even the way we type

has changed, people started saying ‘tuff’ instead of ‘tough’ ironically, but now it’s

just how we say it. There’s no real setup. I don’t even know where half of it starts,

but my friends instantly get it. It feels like our own shared language.”

What began as internet slang slowly became identity. Ishita Arora, 21, a psychology student at Amity University, Noida.

That common style of humour is what gives brainrot its grip. It grows out of late-

night doomscrolling, watching the same clip on loop, and laughing at something

that makes absolutely no sense, but somehow feels correct. For many, it also acts

as emotional release. Ishita Arora, 21, a psychology student at Amity University,

Noida, says,“Brainrot humour doesn’t ask you to be serious or productive. Even

that spinning cat meme, where the animated cat just keeps rotating in a loop with

that chaotic sound playing, always makes me laugh because it’s so pointless and

silly. But then a few scrolls later, the rabbit pointing at a clock meme appears, and

the mood suddenly shifts.

”These memes often end up symbolising the passing of time and the feeling that

moments may have gone by too quickly. Because of this, a person’s mood can

suddenly change within seconds. It shows how easily brainrot content can

affect the way people feel.This is where chaos gets entertaining. It thrives on randomness, the more absurd, the better. Enter Italian brainrot, pure gibberish, surreal AI-generated

characters, and mock-Italian phrases like “Tung Tung Tung Sahur,” “Ballerina

Cappuccina,” “Bombardino Crocodilo,” or “Lirilarila.” None of it makes sense, but

that’s the point. People drop these words in chats or memes with zero context,

and suddenly everyone is crying-laughing. The humour isn’t in logic, it’s in the

shared absurdity. The more ridiculous and nonsensical, the stronger the effect.

Navya Madan, 20, a BBA student at Bennett University, Noida, says, “It started

off as something funny to send to friends like random show clips from reality TV

shows like Splitsvilla or Bigg Boss. But after a point, it almost feels like it has

taken over the way of talking and thinking online. Sometimes the same phrases,

or references start slipping into conversations without even realising it. It’s

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/625431_703e338a440d4f4e803b8eccfdac2cee/720p/mp4/file.mp4

''Me trying to focus while 47 reels fight for screen time inside my head'.; made by- Kavya Lajpal

strange because the whole personality online slowly starts revolving around this

kind of humour. It’s funny in the moment, but it also makes one realise how

much time goes into watching the same kind of chaotic content, to the point

where it slowly begins shaping the way things are expressed online.”

So is all of this a sign that we’re losing depth, attention, or originality? Maybe.

But maybe it’s just the way our generation copes. The internet moves fast, so

our humour does too. It’s random, ironic, sometimes completely senseless, but

it connects us. The problem is not brainrot itself. It’s only a problem if it

becomes the only way we express ourselves. If we can still slow down, think

deeply, and feel fully, then maybe this digital absurdity isn’t a downfall. it’s just

our way of surviving the scroll.