These TikTokers are fighting 'brain rot' by creating their own curriculum

Marjorie Rhéaume was scrolling through and through her TikTok  feast when she came crosswise a picture of someone who had volitionally assigned themselves reading as part of a personal curriculum. Intrigued by the idea, Rhéaume's "for you" page was soon flooded with similar videos.

Rhéaume, who lives in Sherbrooke, Que., creates video content for TikTok and YouTube under the name Cozy Marjorie. She said she was drawn to the trend because of her love for learning. 

"It's a way to learn about something that you might not learn in school and without the pressure of being in an academic environment," Rhéaume said. "But with a bit of a twist where you really don't have many rules."

In the video, Elizabeth Jean explained how she selects a few subjects of interest to delve into each month and picks out books and articles for each one. Since she started posting about the practice online, her monthly curriculums have included topics ranging from astrology to the evolution of modern epidemiology. Commenters chimed in with their own study ideas ranging from soup, to octopuses, to the TV series Gossip Girl.

Since then, eager learners have made the trend their own, creating personal curriculums to develop skills like learning the basics of piano or teaching themselves a new language. Some have even taken it a step further, giving themselves homework assignments to complete as part of their curriculum. 

"It's so easy for personal study to fall to the wayside when other things come up, which is understandable," YouTube creator Ruby Granger said in an August video where she shared her personal curriculum plan for September. "The best way, in my experience, to do that was to kind of set internal deadlines so that it gave the work some sense of urgency."

For some, the trend has provided a way to experience the joy of learning again after finishing formal education. But for others, it symbolizes a very real fight against "brain rot."

Selected as Oxford's Word of the Year in 2024, the term "brain rot" refers to the negative cognitive impact of excessively consuming "low-quality online content." According to the Oxford University Press, use of the term increased by 230 per cent from 2023 to 2024. 

In an article detailing the impact of "brain rot" on the mental health of young adults, the Newport Institute classified it as a "state of mental fogginess and cognitive decline" resulting from "an overabundance of screen time."

"One of the things that might help people be happier and have better mental health and well-being when they use social media is actually to set conscious, intentional goals about why are you going on, how long do you want to be going on for," University of British Columbia psychology professor Amori Mikami said. "But I think it's really too easy to do the exact opposite,"

"I think one of the great things about [the trend] is it's so intentional. It's a way that people can make a conscious effort to think about what interests them and what they want to learn more about," Mikami said. 

As part of her personal curriculum, Rhéaume has chosen to delve into one of her longtime interests – fibre arts. 

"I've always been really interested in sewing and knitting … so I decided to create my own curriculum structured around the history of fibre arts," she said. 

Rhéaume said she's planning to expand her study to include the act of crafting and the impact that it can have. She said she's given herself four months to make it through a curriculum of six books and several personal essays. 

Rhéaume said the trend's popularity on TikTok speaks to a desire for learning outside of school.

"I think it's also a really great way for a lot of people who might not have had the chance to go to school, to university, or maybe don't really necessarily fit into that [academic] structure, to get to learn on their own terms," she said. 

Mikami said that traditional education can be heavily focused on memorization rather than self-directed study. "You don't really have the autonomy to determine, well, what's intrinsically motivating to me?" she said. "What am I interested in and how do I want to figure out how to pursue that?"

Mikami said that getting in touch with those motivations, whether as part of a social media trend or not, "is probably something that is good for us."

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