July 5, 2025

In a world where everyone’s permanently online, speaking fluent Internet isn’t optional—it’s survival. These days, that ‘language’, is basically an endless firehose of content, collectively dubbed as brainrot: viral TikTok sounds, obscure memes, and whatever else the algorithm decides to throw at you. In her latest column, Sonya Kossaya makes the case that brainrot isn’t ruining language; it’s just the internet doing what it does best: reinventing everything, one unhinged inside joke at a time.