AN EDUCATION MANIFESTO AGAINST BRAIN ROT : Learner Agency

The world has welcomed 2025 with New Year celebrations around the world. Without much doubt, some of you had people around manifesting for 2025 or asking about your manifestations, something starting to replace our traditional ways of New Year resolutions. Conversations often revolve around: “Imagine achieving things you want to achieve in 2025.” Trying to sound scientific, some people claim that manifesting will make your resolutions more likely to  be realized.

Despite having no idea whether manifesting has scientific validity or is backed by neuroscientific findings, an increasing number of people worldwide are doing it because of its increased popularity, especially after some celebrities attributed their wealth, health, love, power, and success to manifesting. Remember the 2024 Olympics: Some Olympians manifested their success on social media, and manifesting became even more viral worldwide. 

I am sure you had some people at the New Year celebrations as well- maybe your kid, partner, a friend, colleague, or even yourself-scrolling aimlessly too long on the smartphone at a time when you were supposed to be socializing and filled with joy. That decline in one’s cognition and psychological state after spending too much time scrolling aimlessly

has a name: brain rot.

If these scenes describe what has happened at your New Year celebrations or in your everyday life, then your experience aligns with the cultural and social trends of 2024 as these two words gained significant prominence and were selected as the Word of the Year 2024: “manifesting” by Cambridge Dictionary and “brain rot” by Oxford Dictionary. If you haven’t experienced any of these scenarios, you may be surrounded by people with the luckiest brains on earth. Then, we may need your insights to guide us through creating more environments like yours where human agency is in the driver’s seat and human brains are

at the center of life.

Cambridge Dictionary defines manifesting as using methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, believing that manifesting will make it more likely to happen.

Oxford 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.”

The two prominent dictionaries took a linguistic snapshot of our times, showcasing the trends, capturing what was happening in society, and how language evolves and adapts to new realities. Building on this, our mission as parents, caregivers, and educators might be to innovate our educational practices to address these new challenges, creating more joyful and productive environments.

Neuroscience Connections

Manifesting can harm our brains as it encourages the development of non-scientific mindsets and approaches. While manifesting enjoys widespread popularity, experts warn that some neuroscience findings are interpreted inaccurately and spread as false (pseudo) neuroscience.

The word "manifest" has been used for over a century, but its original meaning, "to show something clearly," has evolved into a concept associated with magical thinking. Dr. Sander van der Linden, author of The Psychology of Misinformation and Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, explained: 'Manifesting is what psychologists term ‘magical thinking’ or the general illusion that specific mental rituals can alter the world around us.' He indicates this shifted meaning of manifesting encourages risky behavior and the dissemination of false and dangerous beliefs, such as the belief that success and wealth can be achieved effortlessly or even diseases can be wished away.

Brain rot, conversely, is external harm inflicted upon our brains when we expose ourselves to destructive mechanisms, harming our innate human agency. While it primarily affects Generation Z and Alpha, digital natives, brain rot can also impact adults. Even people in their 70s and 80s can be exposed to brain rot due to fast scrolling down activity that harms our default brain mechanisms and overconsumption of low-quality content on social media. Ironically, both manifesting and brain-rot are amplified through social media- the very place these two words indicate the most harm to brains.

Worries are growing about brain rot. At this point, reflecting on the question the first user of the term brain-rot, Henry David Thoreau, asked in his book “Walden” in 1854 could provide guidance for our child-rearing and educational practices. Criticizing  the decline in intellectual standards, Thoreau compared it to the 1840s "potato rot" in Europe:

“While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour

to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”

Innovating Education around Toreau’s Inquiry

In a world where neuroscience revolutionizes countless aspects of life, we can embrace its insights to redesign education innovatively. Educational neuroscience combines cognitive neuroscience, developmental cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, educational technology, and education theory to address the academic needs of our modern and technological world.

Several studies have shown that technology and digital media overuse can impact brain function and cognitive abilities, affecting attention, memory, and decision-making. Still, thanks to the emergence of educational neuroscience, we can “endeavor to cure the brain rot”  today by educating people’s minds and empowering their agency. This multidisciplinary field can also cure the problem of manifesting by activating strategic networks of the human brain so that their brains are not acted upon but educated to set SMART goals and be strategic. 

In this deep ocean of opportunities and risks in this technology and AI age, evidence-based frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and Mind, Brain, and Education (MEB) that are developed around educational neuroscience can guide us toward turning the wind to the benefit of humanity. These frameworks provide evidence-based approaches to make learning more effective, and technology use more human-centered and inclusive. By implementing such brain-based frameworks,  we can achieve the goal of “agency”- a term that dates back to the 17th century. This concept is central to the Harvard University Achievement Gap Initiative, the International Baccalaureate Organization, the OECD Learning Compass 2030, and the goal of the UDL Guidelines 3.0.

OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 defines student agency as “ the principle that students have the ability and the will to positively influence their own lives and the world around them. Student agency is thus defined as the capacity to set a goal, reflect, and act responsibly to effect change. It is about acting rather than being acted upon; shaping rather than being shaped; and making responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others.”

According to the Center for Assistive Technology (CAST) website, “The UDL Guidelines inform the design of learning environments to support learner agency that is purposeful and reflective; resourceful and authentic; strategic and action-oriented.” The guidelines enhance learner agency, empower students to take control of their learning journey, and foster a sense of ownership, motivation, and engagement, leading to more inclusive learning experiences.

The two neuroscience-related Words of the Year 2024 highlight a picture of danger and high risks for society. However, we have scientifically proven educational neuroscience approaches and strategies to turn the tide. Guided by neuroscience, we can innovate our education, achieve the goal of learner agency, and create a brighter future for all by working wisely, collaboratively, and globally.

Let's hope that more scientifically proven brain-empowering words go viral and are chosen as the words of 2025. Let’s aim for fewer people to experience brain rot and more people to enhance their brain capacity and skills to create a better future for themselves and all of us by practicing their learner agency instead of relying on manifestations in our future New Year celebrations.