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Avoid Brain Rot. Read Comics Instead
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Avoid Brain Rot. Read Comics Instead

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Brain rot. It’s been something that has been discussed a lot throughout social media and the news in recent months. It was even the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024.

The dictionary defines brain rot as:

“The supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration”

You’ve probably witnessed this if you spend enough time on social media. Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, or many other platforms, there’s a lot of junk out there. As is often the case, this material is algorithmically served to you in small bites and relentlessly feeding your brain with empty calories. It’s killing our attention spans, attributing to the slow death of reading, and sucks time away from more productive or enjoyable activities.

But this is a comic book site? Why are you talking about brain rot?

Much of avoiding brain rot is about changing your habits. Recognising your consumption, reducing screen time, and engaging in mentally stimulating activities go a long way to a healthier brain. And that’s where comics can help.

Find yourself doomscrolling or in a TikTok hole? I highly recommend closing the app and picking up a comic instead. Feed your brain with fiction and sequential storytelling. It’s a more productive use of your time with plenty of benefits.

Some people claim that comics rot your brain as well. However, they’re probably biased against the medium and have likely never read a comic before. The medium has plenty of artistic merit. The French even consider it the “ninth art“. An array of stories can be told, from superhero adventures to deeply personal dramas and everything in between. Comics can evoke emotions, explore serious themes, and show the world from a different perspective. Like reading fictional novels, it can help develop critical thinking, theory of mind, empathy, and open-mindedness – all attributes that aid our regular and professional lives.

At the same time, reading a comic page is mentally stimulating. Comics build and strengthen visual literacy. A reader must interpret what’s in each given panel. They do this through several visual and written clues. The brain has to interpret what is happening inside the comic book panel, a moment in time captured within a box on the page. This is not simply through the line art but the use of colour, how the art is framed, and more. That’s even before you get to any narration or dialogue. A reader does this for every panel on the page and then has to associate the relationship between each panel. Without realising it, our brain takes in a lot of information and processing it.

RELATED: How To Read A Comic Book Page

So, how do you create the habit of reading and avoid brain rot? There are plenty of tips out there. The first thing to do is close the brain-rotting apps and pick up a comic. Make sure you have them handy, whether it be a stack of comics/graphic novels on your bedside table or making it easy to boot up a digital comics app like Kindle, Global Comix, Marvel Unlimited, or DC Universe Infinite. The more you do this, and make it easy to do so, the more likely it will form a habit – pulling you away from the brain-rotting material.

Make sure you’re reading material that you’re enjoying. The last thing you want to do is to have reading feel like a slog. You’ll find that you’ll spend more time reading if you’re invested in what you’re reading. And the more you read, the more time you spend away from brain-rotting material.

RELATED: Where To Buy Comic Books, Graphic Novels, And Manga

Need some extra motivation? Check out our Comics Reading Tracker. Along with journaling what you’ve been reading, it gives you the option to set reading goals. It’s an extra level of incentive to read more comics.

Next time you find yourself in a brain-rotting social media hole, don’t continue down further. Instead, read a comic. With all the mental benefits, your brain will thank you for it.

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