The Brain Rot Epidemic: Is Social Media Making Us Feel Inadequate?

Lately, my social media feed has been flooded with discussions on brain rot and doomsday scrolling. While content is hailed as king and data as the new gold, I can't help but feel that we're drowning in an overdose of information—either from brands mindlessly pushing ads or influencers making us feel inadequate.

As someone working in content marketing, I spend nearly 10 hours a day on Instagram and YouTube. Ideally, content should strike a balance between education and entertainment, but recently, it feels more like a portal designed to make us feel bad about ourselves.

The Illusion of Perfection

Popular content formats like “Get Ready With Me” and “A Day in the Life” often project an unrealistic standard of living that 90% of the population can only dream of.

My Brain Rot Scroll Looks Like:

1. Finance with Sharan – Convincing me that by 25, I should be in the 1 crore club and an expert investor.

2. Beauty influencers – Making me insecure about my looks with unattainable beauty standards.

3. Fitness blogs – Labelling everything I eat as toxic and advocating extreme, unsustainable diets.

4. Ranveer Allahabadia – Preaching superhuman productivity—work, socialise, meditate, exercise, and sleep 8 hours, all within 24 hours.

5. Travel & lifestyle influencers – Constantly on a beach, mountain, or at an exotic location, making me question my everyday reality.

6. Be10x & other course sellers – Claiming that learning AI-powered PPTs will quadruple my salary overnight

After 30 minutes of scrolling, I turn off my phone feeling overwhelmed—thinking about how I don’t:

✔ Eat right

✔ Invest smartly

✔ Have enough focus

✔ Lead an exciting life

The Real Impact of Social Media Overload

While some content is valuable and educational, an increasing number of people around me express a desire to deactivate their accounts just to escape the overload of expectations. Social media was once about connection, but now it often fuels anxiety, self-doubt, and a constant feeling of not being enough.

The Need for Contentment

It’s fair—people will always share the best parts of their lives online. But as young adults, we often forget that:

1. Everyone’s priorities are different. Not all of us want the same things, and that’s okay.

2. Having it all doesn’t guarantee happiness. What looks perfect online might not feel the same in real life.

At the end of the day, I don’t think the solution is to quit social media entirely. But maybe we need to remind ourselves that it’s okay to not have it all figured out. Some days, just getting through the day is enough. Maybe we don’t need a six-figure salary by 25, or a six-pack, or a Pinterest-perfect life.

Maybe we just need to be a little kinder to ourselves.

Would love to hear how social media makes you feel—does it inspire or overwhelm you? Let’s talk.