Learn Language through the song - | English exercises

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(ominous music)

- A lot of people have been feeling

as if though something sinister

is happening to their brains.

They feel as if though their excessive use of the internet

and the types of videos they watch on there

is making them dumber.

And this probably isn't news to anybody.

It is abundantly clear

that basically every social media app now has some sort

of short-form content tab that you can click to。

And they kind of want you to click on it

because they know that you will spend a lot of time on there

because of the novelty of it.

And the content itself is designed to keep you watching

as long as possible, by any means necessary,

sometimes even by playing two videos at the same time,

to keep the novelty up, to keep the dopamine flowing.

But people have really started to notice

that the more they consume this content,

the dumber they feel, the more useless they feel.

To the point where people have now coined

the term "brain rot content,"

insinuating that by consuming this content,

your brain is rotting.

It is degenerating in some way.

And there's some truth to this.

Studies have found that the human attention span

is decreasing, to the point now

where the average phone pickup lasts about 10 seconds.

And that was in 2021.

But people have been talking about this for a long time.

I'm not saying anything new here.

And the term brain rot wouldn't have been coined

if nobody was talking about it.

But is it actually true?

Is the modern internet landscape rotting holes

in all of our brains to the point

where we are just degenerate human beings now,

we are zombies?

Just a slave to the algorithm, prisoners to our phones.

And is there nothing we can do about it?

Well, of course, there's nothing you can do about it.

It's over. We're doomed.

Pack it up. But here's the thing.

I think we're asking the wrong questions.

I think society has become pretty obsessed with the idea

that external forces cause them to do certain things.

It's like, oh, this short-form content

is now on the internet and it's there.

And it's so addictive

that it's making everybody just watch it,

and people are getting hooked on it,

and it's frying their brains.

And now we're just a bunch of NPCs.

But the truth is, nothing can make you do anything.

You know, short-form content is inanimate.

It can't make you watch it.

And there are plenty of things that might be really bad

for you that you are currently not tempted

to go and consume.

Now, there is something to be said about giving smartphones

to toddlers and turning them into iPad kids.

But if you're watching this,

then chances are you have a fully formed brain,

or something close to it.

And if that's the case,

I want you to know that you are in full control

over all of your actions in life,

even though it might not seem like it at times.

You know, people who have anger issues, they say,

"Man, I just can't control my anger."

It's like, well, you can.

And a lot of people who go through rehabilitation learn

that they do have control over their anger.

And getting over their anger issues

is about learning that they have had control.

It's learning to exercise that control in a healthier way.

Now, this leads me to what I believe

is the actual brain rot in society.

There is a pervasive sentiment going on right now,

and I don't know how long it's been going on for.

I suspect a lot longer than social media has been around.

And it's this parasitic idea

that you are not in control over your own actions.

It's this idea that the things

that are around you in your environment,

inanimate objects, situations,

can make you do things that you don't want to do.

That's just not true.

The real brain rot is thinking,

"Oh, you know, I should be doing my work,

but, you know, I'm just so addicted to my phone.

And I get down this rabbit hole, and I can't stop."

Or, "Once I beat my internet addiction,

I will finally be a productive human being.

Then I can start living the life I want.

I just need to, you know, reel it in.

I need to just learn how to beat this thing."

That type of belief system is a feedback loop

that you will never get out of.

It's subscribing to this idea of helplessness.

It's determinism.

It's rejecting the idea that you have free will.

And when it comes to your own behaviors, a lot of the time,

the ideas that you subscribe to become true for you.

If you believe that you are helpless,

that you're just a leaf blowing in the wind

in your own life, then that will become true for you.

You'll wait around for some perfect situation to line up.

The stars will align perfectly,

and that will make you do something

that you already want to do.

You make, on average, 35,000 decisions every single day.

A decision implies

that there are multiple options on the table,

and that you have the autonomy to actually choose

from an array of options.

Otherwise, it's not really a decision.

Which means that you have the ability

to make a different decision.

Every single one of these decisions can be different.

And just because certain decisions are a little bit harder

or easier, or they might feel that way,

doesn't mean that you don't have the option

and that you don't make the decision.

So a really good example of this distortion of control

is the election that just happened in the United States.

I'm up here in Canada,

so I have a degree of separation from the drama.

So with the election,

you have an outcome that shapes what it feels like

to live in a certain country.

And, right, the country that you live in

is your environment.

There are certain laws and there are certain rules,

and when those laws and rules change,

it can feel pretty different.

But whatever the outcome of an election is,

is the outcome, right?

Like, you individually don't make a difference

in that outcome.

You only have the illusion of making a difference.

You have very powerful people who lobby and control things

and have all of the money and power,

and they present you with this option, right?

Here's your control, citizen.

You can choose this candidate or this candidate.

And it makes you feel like

you're really making a difference.

Like, "Oh, cool. I get to make a choice now.

The fate of the country is in my hands."

But it's like, no, it's not.

You individually don't get to decide what the food supply is

or what the border security is like.

Like, you don't make all these decisions.

Like, you only have the illusion of decision.

So to argue about what that decision ultimately came to,

in my opinion, is really dumb.

Doing that is like being involved in a poker game.

You're sitting there at the poker table

and the dealer hands you a card.

And instead of trying to maximize the hand

that you're dealt, even if it's a horrible hand,

instead of trying to decide for yourself what you do

when you get that hand, you don't play the game,

and you argue with the dealer.

You argue with everybody at the table about, like,

how stupid this hand is.

But it's like, no matter what,

the hand you're dealt is the hand you're dealt.

You may have an opinion,

and you might know for certain what a good hand looks like,

but even if you get the best hand in poker,

somebody else could have a better hand,

just based on the mixture of cards at the table.

No matter what, ultimately, the decisions

that you make will determine the outcome

of the game for you.

You have far less control over the hand you're dealt

than you think you do,

and you have way more control over

how you play that hand than you've been led to believe.

So what does this all mean?

How do we solve the problem of brain rot?

How do you take control over your own life

and actually change your behavior

so you stop feeling like a passenger in your own life

and get back into the driver's seat?

Well, we'll go over some practical tips

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Okay, so now that you're equipped with the mindset

that will help you counteract brain rot,

which I believe is the most important step,

what are some practical ways

that you can actually remember this mindset

and stay on track so that you can start attacking life

instead of being a passenger

who just consumes stupid videos all day

and regrets it later?

Well, the number one thing that you can do

is be conscious of this thing that I call mental posture,

and structure your day with that in mind.

So what the hell am I talking about?

So everybody kind of already instinctually feels what I mean

when I say mental posture.

You know when you're kind of consuming content all day?

Say you're down a YouTube rabbit hole.

It feels like almost mentally your brain itself

is lounging back and you're scrolling content,

and you have this sort of passive mindset.

You know, you want things to entertain you,

you want things to affect you,

and you don't really want to do anything.

The goal here isn't to be a perfect human being.

It's to feel as if though

that you're doing a better job of being a person,

the person that you want to be.

So what I've done is I've really made sure

to structure my day so that I am starting the first half

of the day with a more aggressive

and proactive mental posture.

And it's really hard to get into that framework

if the first part of your day is riddled

with this sort of passive mental posture.

Which means don't start your day by getting

into this YouTube rabbit hole.

Don't start your day by being a passenger

and a consumer of things.

And you do that by just doing nothing really, right?

Instead of going on your phone, don't go on your phone.

It's that simple.

Go get your coffee or whatever you want to do.

Start your day off slow, with very little stimulation,

and start thinking about the things you want to do that day.

And I think, naturally, your motivation kicks in

if you don't flood it with consumption.

If you have absolutely no stimulation

except the delicious cup of coffee that you have

and the sound of the rain hitting the window,

then your imagination will actually have time to breathe.

You'll think, "Oh."

You know, maybe you have to go to work.

I think most people have to go to work.

But it's like, okay, how do I want this work day to go?

You start thinking of ways that you can play your poker hand

to the best of your ability.

You know, what hand am I gonna be dealt today?

And how can I play that hand better?

Whereas if you start the day and you, you know,

for the first hour of the day before you go to work,

you're just in this YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels binge,

then you're just gonna start

that day off being affected by things.

You have this mental posture of passivity,

and you're not going to attack life

and mold it to your will.

And the second thing you can do is to eliminate things

that pull you into this habit of consumerism.

One of the most useful things that you can do is,

A, delete stupid apps from your phone

that you waste a lot of time on, number one.

You know, I'm a chronic Instagram deleter.

I'll download TikTok, like, once every two months

when somebody sends me a TikTok

and I have to react to it or respond to it.

And TikTok does that stupid thing

where it makes you make an account or something.

I don't know.

Just delete stuff that you don't want on your phone.

It sounds obvious, but a lot of people don't do it.

They just have all these time-wasting apps on their phone,

and they expect that they won't click on it one day.

You don't have to delete your account,

although that's what I did.

And you'll probably get there, to be honest.

But just delete the app.

And then, secondly, go into the settings of your phone

and disable like 99% of all

of your notifications for things.

What do you really need to be notified about other

than somebody sending you a text message directly

or receiving a phone call?

You don't need Adobe PDF scanner texting you

and causing a phone pickup.

Adobe PDF Scanner, what the (phone trills)?

So do a serious vetting of your phone,

making sure that you are reducing phone pickups

that will pull you out of being a proactive person

in your life and back into being this backseat driver.

And the third thing I would say

is do as many things as you can that make you present.

You know, I play hockey, I go to the gym.

These things kind of pull you into the present moment,

and it gets you in the habit of actually doing things

and moving things in space and time

and contributing to the world physically.

And these things can be things

that you genuinely enjoy doing.

You know, these are nice moments

where you're not a mere battery

for a giant corporate oligarchy.

These are moments where you break free of "The Matrix"

and you're a real person

in the real world doing real things.

Maximize the time in your life

where you're doing stuff like that,

even if you're going for a walk

or grabbing coffee with a friend.

Be a person in the world.

The internet isn't real.

It's kind of just like pictures on a screen.

So stop looking at pictures on a screen so much

and go and live the life that you actually wanna live.

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