We Have Always Been Brainrotted

The consumption of marginal media practices has a long history, which has only now, thanks to the power of algorithmic curation, found full expression in the phenomenon of brainrot. Through an analysis of peripheral media, the structuring of content as a digital hole, and the operationalisation of short-form content within the computational economy, this essay illustrates how brainrot can be read as an untethered expression of algorithmic culture.