There is a lot of talk about “brain rot” these days: about the negative impact of doomscrolling, consuming AI slop and turgid digital content. There’s a good deal of concern about the effect all of that has on the attention spans, garbled slang and general cognition of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
But where is the real brain rot? A lot of it is to be found on X.
Under the stewardship of Elon Musk, the platform has long descended into a cesspit. It’s not enough to think: well, let them at it. Because among the “them”, are legitimate media organisations that continue to have a presence on the platform.
They are presumably maintaining a presence there because a lot of people still get their news on X, and news publishers see it as a way of getting their stories in front of readers at a time when they are competing with big tech. But is it worth it? And is there a line that will be crossed or a final alarm that will be triggered and will signal the necessity of their departure? What will that be? Why are media organisations – including The Irish Times, which publishes on X – participating?
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Political content on X is not diverse; it is predominantly right-wing. Last week, Sky News published an investigation on the X algorithm, and how Musk boosts the British right. The investigation found that more than half of political content came from accounts “that used hateful or extreme language”. Musk himself consistently attempts to exert political influence by pushing anti-democratic narratives. X boosts extreme content. In turn, those who stew in this fetid pool become mindless vessels of its repetition, foot-soldiers marching to the beat of an algorithm.
This is a platform long since abandoned by many journalists ( this one included) due to abuse, harassment, and threats. Those who remain should question why. What are they gaining from hanging around in what is essentially one big bar fight? Is it about ego or desire for reaction or clout?
There is a – rather weak, it has to be said – argument for continued participation. That argument is staying on the platform as some sort of holdout or bulwark against its total disintegration, and to maintain a presence wherever people are. But that is not the real motivation for media organisations. Is diverting eyeballs to their websites a good enough reason to be still publishing on a platform run by a ketamine-addled megalomaniac billionaire who revels in supporting authoritarian forces globally?
The continuing presence of major media outlets on X does not have a diluting effect on the concentration of misinformation and disinformation on the platform. If it did, then we wouldn’t be where we are.
The effect it does have, however, is to benefit X. Trusted media outlets continuing to publish on the platform has a legitimising effect on what is largely now a platform for misinformation. So long as they’re still there, advertisers will continue to advertise, and X can still be framed as a host for news and journalism. In reality, it is a failed state in digital territory, especially when it comes to the basic tenets of journalism: facts and truth.
When you spend enough time inhaling the toxic vapours of this miasma – as in any awful environment – you too become toxic. The world on X is not the real world, but it does negatively impact the real world. Taking the social temperature from X’s version of events is like gauging how hot it is outside by shoving your head in boiling tar, the platform is a dystopia, real and hallucinated.
The purpose X serves now for many of us is to offer a window on to the worst sort of discourse. It is useful only in monitoring disinformation, to see who is spreading what, what nonsense is being peddled, what weird narratives are being pushed, and what the latest manufactured, highly emotional right-wing hysteria is.
The idea that X is some kind of counterpoint to consensus, or a place for any kind of useful discourse, or a spot to hang out in which is to be challenged healthily, is a complete nonsense. But there is a persistent and strange idea that people should withstand abuse, unhinged rage, and harassment and lies as some kind of filter bubble-burster. X is the echo chamber. The real world is elsewhere. And why would anyone who believes in civility – and with plenty of other better things to do – spend time in such an uncivil space anyway? It’s like staying for hours at the worst party ever for the fallacy that it somehow expands the mind to endure awful company. It doesn’t. It’s a waste of time.
There are certain media figures whom I’ve seen develop X brain rot in real time, seemingly unaware that the algorithm is honing the contours of their outbursts and embarrassing “quips”, and hardening the shell of their echo chamber. Most of these people are Gen X conservative men, the demographic probably least likely to face abuse on the platform – perhaps one reason why they still hold out.
Media outlets need to break ties with X. Better to leave with a little dignity than keep rolling around in the mire.
