The inspiration for this article and awareness of the unrealistically optimistic plan I was concocting arrived when I was scribbling down in my journal (unironically) my new “brain care routine.” My plan was simple. Every morning, I would feed my brain an “anti-rot” stack: 20 minutes of Sudoku (optimistic to say the least, seeing as I had never played before), 20 minutes of reading, and in my journal, a 20 minute “brain dump.”
The cause of this fresh wave of health anxiety was that for the last few months, my Instagram and TikTok feeds have been inundated with videos of “brain care routine to prevent cognitive decline and being dumb,” and “how to un-rot your brain,” or, my particular favourite, “the (anti-rot) brain breakfast” which is followed by a “menu” of what to feed your brain in the morning. For someone that is all too aware of how much time I spend on a screen, every one of these videos was met with a pang of guilt and crippling dread that this was indeed self-inflicting. Every time I forgot something — my keys, my notepad, or to call a friend from home — it twisted into a sinister marker of my rotting brain; thus, I set my game plan: no more rotting my brain!
I found that all of these wellness trends promote strong feelings of anxiety that push me to conduct an overhaul of my daily routine. Which, of course, only lasts a few weeks at best before I sink back to my perfectly healthy and normal habits, of which are simply incomparable to the perfectly curated routines I see online. These targeted routines to prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s are akin to the trend of anti-aging skincare routines in young girls. Although it means well, the sensationalism that throwing around complex medical terms by non-medical professionals can provoke, in my opinion, does more harm than good — especially when it is targeting teenagers and young adults.
Although anything on social media must be taken with an air of suspicion, it would be irrational to deny that this content is based on scientific backed knowledge surrounding the impacts that scrolling and screens has on brain function and memory. Mournfully, many aspects of our lives revolve around technology doing the critical thinking for us. Even the thought process of finding a physical book and taking it out of the Main Library is gone; simply seek on Discover Ed and you shall find. Just like the rise of physical gyms was in direct correlation to the rise of a stationary work force, are these trending brain gyms simply the next natural adaptation for a society that no longer thinks critically?
I resonate strongly with both of these perspectives. I certainly want to have a healthier relationship with technology, and protect my brain from cognitive decline in the long run. However, this healthy relationship does not need to include beating myself up if I don’t complete a perfect brain morning or night time routine. It must also come with the appreciation that the correlation of living a life with technology and being a tad forgetful does not equate to causation.
Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash
