Readings week 2 - Memes and “Brainrot”

Owens 2025: Brain Rot; Philipets & Chao 2025: Noise; Tang & Wilkstrom 2024: Side job (AI slop)

Brain Rot

“Mindless scroling” - Purposeful, socially meaningful, decompression-centered youth practice, not defeneration.

Decompression-Driven genre of participation

Category of media engagement where users consume content for relaxation rather than productivity or sociality

Genres of Participation (Misuko Ito)

Framework describing youth engagement online as friendship-driven, interest-driven or decompression-driven

Media Panic

Moral or societal anxiety about youth media use, framing it as harmful or degenerative

DeepTok

Subcultural spaces on TikTok featuring surreal, chaotic or “deep-fried” content that resits mainstream trends

Soundscape

Lyered, collective sonic enviornment created by users remixing and reusing audio across videos

Noise

Generative, creative force that drives memetic energy and resits algorithmic order

Memetic cirulation

Spread and mutation of content through imitation, remixing and shared humour

Metadating

Researchers’ reflexive method of interpreting platform metadata to understand relationships between sounds, hashtags and engagement 

Sonic social media

Concept that sound organizes participation, meaning-making and virality on platforms like TikTok

Attention economy

Economic system where user attention is the key resource monetized by platforms

AI Slop

Mass-produced, low-quality and bizarre AI generated content flooding social platforms

Platform Incentive Programs

Monetization schemes that encourage frequent posting and viral content

AI Gold Rush

Emerging industry where users exploit gen AI tools to profit from mass content creation

Platform Abitrage

Tactic where creators recycle viral videos from one platform to another often using AI translation

Account matrix

Strategy of managing multiple accounts to target different regions and languages for maximum reach and profit

Algorithmic culture

Way algorithms shape what users see, create and value online

Participatory Media

Digital enviornments where users are both content consumers and producers

Pilipets’ & Chao’s core argument

TikTok’s attention economy is increasingly shaped by soundscapes where noise, glitches and remixed audio become central to memetic circulation. DeepTok exemplifies this.

Owens’ core argument

Author challenges media-panic narratives and argues that brainrot is not cognitive decline but a genre of participation through which teens engage with TikTok in deliberate, meaningful ways.