“Brain rot” was the word chosen in 2024 by the Oxford Dictionary, which refers to a mental decay.
In an interview with the Brazilian psychologist Veitchia Scarpellini, a graduate of the Centro Universitário das Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas, she clarifies what “brain rot”: it is not a diagnosis, but a clinical tempral marker.
In her words, “if we think of brain rot as a social symptom, it relates to how we are dealing with time and thought. It’s as if we have flattened space and reduced time.
This phenomenon is linked to the consumption of short, contextless, yet stimulating content, which Scarpellini says that it promotes a saturation of stimulating content closely tied to the superficiality of the images and our envolving relationship with time.
The impact of this mental fatigue is already visible; for the first time in a century, new generations may be exhibiting lower Intelligence Quotient (IQ) than their parents.
In other words, in a world dependent on algorithms, constant exposure to such content creates dopamine spikes so intense that being glued to screens becomes normal. Over time, this repetition drives dependency and leads to mental fatigue, shaping the nature of digital humor.
In 2025, the Alpha Generation, those who were born after 2012, started spreading online nonsensical memes: the so-called, “Italian brainrot,” which uses artificial intelligence and senseless Italian audio.
The characters that are part of it look even more absurd: “Ballerina Cappuccina”, which is a allerina with a cup for a head, “Bombardilo Crocodilo”, that is a hybrid of crocodile and military bomber, and “Tralalero Tralala”, consisting of a three-legged shark.
Why is it brain rot viral
“Digital natives” those who were born after 1995, possess a different level of literacy, since their lives have been based on the internet. With the arrival of artificial intelligence, perceiving reality becomes even more difficult.
However, this doesn’t mean they are not vulnerable to consuming fake content. Because they live in a reality where, according to the philosopher Jean Baudrillard, technological representations become more real than reality itself, it consequently blurs their perception of reality.
This happens when they saturate and exhaust their minds with online data that was often generated by artificial intelligence and has a great chance of being fake. With that, consuming this kind of doubtful content makes it harder for them to distinguish reality from its simulation.
Therefore, for the psychologist Veitchia, this both psychological and caused by the multiple stimuli in digital content, as well caused by the high demanding logic of productivity, leads people to not question what they consume online; in this scenario, they end up laughing at what is silly because it’s comfortable.
Within this context, in Brazil, a kindo of “fruit soap operas” went viral in early March 2026; it is difficult to know who originated the plot, but the profile “AI.Cinema021” was one of the forerunners in transferring the plot of the reality show “Love Island” to the universe of fruits.
Characters like “Mr.Avocado,” the traitor, and “Strawberry,” who faces a troubled relationship, now star in the most talked-about couple on the internet. A soap opera featuring unrealistic characters, entirely created using artificial intelligence, is the new craze.
What started with just reproducing plots has reached new protagonists and is no longer limited to fruits; it is now possible to see soap operas about precious stones and humanized animals produced by AI.
There are a lot of those being spread online, but the logic remains the same: it consists of short videos, with unreal characters, about scandalous topics that provoke thought.
For Gabriela Moreira, Head of Marketing at Multiverso Experience, fruits went viral because “There is a very strong alignment between human behavior and algorithm logic. These videos function as mini-narratives, with a beginning, conflict, and continuation, which increases retention, one of the most important metrics in digital today.
She adds that those soap operas sparks curiosity because seeing fruits living human dramasit is something completely unexpected. The brain tries to understand that.”In other words, what fuels this is the curiosity to know what happens next. This increases the consumption of numerous similar videos- typical of brain rot.
Furthermore, the public is open to very unrealistic content, microdramas are the perfect contrast to the unreal, with serious themes such as fat-shamming, toxic relationships, and betrayal, but which are relativized due to the short video length.
In one minute of video, people have access to a drama with several controversial topics, and that is precisely what the population wants, especially young people, who spend most of their time on TikTok. In an analysis by Isabela Soller, CEO of the Soller group and specialist in content creator management, this movement is driven by convenience, as people can combine two practices on a single platform: researching and being entertained.
Therefore, the interest in superficial information is not limited to humor, but also to the way these young people search for information.
SEARCHing For belonging
Furthermore, the decline in humor is related to chages in the sense of community in today’s post-pandemic context.
Individualism is becoming more present in society, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, social media became the main way people connected. And this has persisted to this day.
Still, psychologist Veitchia talks about how cases of social phobia still increase, in which people are feeling lonelier due to a lack of real-life interaction. This is because online interactions alone do not fully meet our needs; they were indeed the right solution during lockdown, but they are not enough for this moment.
However, this search for belonging is reflected in AI-generated soap operas, especially those featuring fruits, which have had great repercussions; to the point that major brands, such as Burger King, iFood, Clif and the Flamengo team, have adopted similar images to promote their content.
This ilustrates how these “fruit soap-operas” work: they are absorbed quickly, everybody understands it, and nobody is left out.
The article above was edited by Isabella Scaramucci
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