Young people are always online. And it’s not a bad thing. Here’s why

In the weeks leading up to the end of 2024, dictionary companies in the US and UK scurried to crown their Word of The Year. They considered delulu, brat, manifest, demure, enshittification, and romantasy. One term that was on every list: Brain rot. The term indicated that young people were so online, so much of the time, consuming so much mediocre content that their brains had literally started to decompose.