The 2024 Oxford University Press annual buzzwords have been released, with the term 'brain corruption' on the list. 'Brain decay' refers to the deterioration of mental and intellectual state, resembling decay, after being exposed to too much low-quality, fragmented information on social media. As early as 1854, Thoreau proposed the term "brain decay" in "Walden Pond" to criticize society's tendency towards simple and brainless ideas rather than deeper and more complex thinking, representing a general decline in social spirit and intelligence. Therefore, he raised a question: "While England is striving to cure potato diseases, shouldn't we also strive to cure brain decay, which is far more common and deadly than rotting potatoes?" In the Oxford Corpus, the use of the term "brain decay" increased by 230% per million words from 2023 to 2024. In this information age, people's fragmented time is occupied by the internet. Perhaps I had planned to just glance at it or respond to a message, but for some reason, I was caught up in the flow of information, trapped in various emojis, meaningless short videos, and extreme opinion articles, and an hour or two passed unnoticed. Although exhausted, it feels like being stuck and unable to put down the phone - this is a typical manifestation of 'brain decay'. A subtle and almost imperceptible psychological stagnation, fueled by the never-ending online content on social media today. We are surrounded by a large number of fragmented videos and articles every day, but what is truly useful for our lives is very little, or even none. This is the shattered world we are in during the fourth generation technological revolution. When we spend hours browsing online content, we receive a large amount of meaningless data, negative news, and perfect photos edited by others, which can make us feel inferior. At the same time, receiving and responding to a large amount of information can cause mental fatigue, leading to a decrease in people's motivation, attention, productivity, and so on. But in this era of technological advancement, being detached from mobile life is simply a pipe dream. Short videos of tens of seconds and posts of around 100 words have gradually become the limit of people's reading, and fewer and fewer people are willing to read expensive books and lengthy texts. During regular commuting, queuing, and other times, picking up your phone to browse short videos and read posts is a way for many people to pass the time. Most people also find it inconvenient to do in-depth reading during this time, but in fact, after leisure time, people still choose to surf the internet instead of picking up a book to read. The designers of each platform try their best to make users stay on the page as long as possible, seize every second that users stay on the platform, and attract users as much as possible. The algorithm makes us trapped in the Internet and unable to extricate ourselves. Over time, the audience's thinking stays at a shallow level of reception and understanding. What the audience knows and sees is fleeting, with almost no content that can be retained in memory for a long time. They may even forget what they saw yesterday after waking up the next day. Just like Tiktok, your attention has been attracted by fragmented content. You can't calm down and think about what others say. So when you read articles in the future, don't rush to confirm or deny. What you think is what. Your thoughts should be composed of the world you have walked through, the books you have read, and the experiences you have. Perhaps it is difficult to quit the addiction to mobile phones, but in our leisure time, we can put down our phones, pick up a book, read an article, or set our own focused goals and strive for them as much as possible while studying or working. Such choices and attempts are still achievable. After experiencing the bombardment of information flow, I left my phone for a period of time and regained some of the beauty that is exclusive to life in a space where the network cannot interfere. Life cannot be overwhelmed by massive and useless fragmented information. Learning to choose has always been an important lesson in life. Choose to focus on reading a longer article or a book and engage in some deep thinking. And 'brain corruption' should not be imposed on us by the development of technology in the era. We should screen the good and necessary content on the Internet, not excessively immerse ourselves in trivial content on the Internet, and let our lives surface on information fragments. (New Society)