Looking back at the development of modern medicine, we have to admit that there are some "diseases" that are tied to the times, but there are also some that seem to have put on a new coat and "come back". The term 'brain decay' has recently become popular, referring to the decline in mental and intellectual state caused by excessive input of low-quality digital information, especially on social media. It has been selected as the 2024 vocabulary by Oxford University Press. Interestingly, another dictionary with a tradition of selecting words of the year, Collins Dictionary, also included "brain rot" as its annual candidate word. Although the corpora of these two annual vocabulary mainly come from various news reports in the English speaking world, this phenomenon has aroused the vigilance and resonance of young people in different language worlds, because many people have had similar experiences - even though they haven't done anything, they just lie on the sofa scrolling through their phones, but feel particularly tired; Although I have been reading, it is difficult to calm down and think about problems. Compared to modern medical research on calorie intake, there is still no authoritative figure who provides a standard quantification for the "excessive" input of information. According to incomplete statistics, compared to the era when modern newspapers were just born, today we are exposed to approximately 174 newspapers and around 5000 images of information every day. Faced with an exponential increase in the amount of information and the enormous workload of making thousands of decisions based on this information, our brain capacity has not undergone significant changes and has basically developed and taken shape hundreds of thousands of years ago. The excessive consumption of information reminds us of the prophecy mentioned in the 1972 book "The Limits to Growth" co authored by multiple authors: the Earth is heading towards a dangerous trajectory beyond its carrying capacity, and the driving force behind this trajectory is overconsumption, which has become a modern civilization disease. Half a century after the publication of 'The Limits to Growth', what fascinates us is not only material consumption, but also 'intangible' information and data. Sociological researchers compare "data hoarding" to item hoarding, believing that hoarding is a defensive strategy for humans to cope with the scarcity and uncertainty of the material world they have experienced. Although different from the clothes stuffed in the wardrobe and the food hoarded in the storage room, the various apps and unread articles in the favorites that cannot be deleted on the phone seem more harmless and imperceptible. However, it still exposes our inner insecurity, at least the anxiety of missing valuable information. Information and knowledge anxiety have its positive side, but how much information is effective on social media, which occupies most people's time and is filled with fragmented information? Korean German philosopher Han Bingzhe summarized in "The Disappearance of Others" that information on social media is no longer inspiring, but distorted and deformed; Communication is no longer just about communication, but simply the accumulation of language. Even the largest accumulation of information - big data - contains very limited knowledge. Brain science research has confirmed that consuming fragmented and homogenized information repeatedly triggers the transmission of information by neurons in the brain that specialize in browsing information and synchronously processing multitasking. As the saying goes, the synaptic connections between neurons responsible for focused reading and deep and delicate thinking will shrink. So, 'brain decay' is not just a metaphor, and related symptoms such as attention deficit and cognitive impairment have been clinically proven. In addition to these fragmented, ineffective, and even harmful contents, sociologists are more concerned about the potential harm that "behavior" itself may bring. We, who cannot do without our phones, are increasingly controlled by abstract language, concepts, or appearances that can be presented on screens, losing many concrete perceptions in our daily lives. In the view of sociologist Xiang Biao, abstract time dominates our modern life. For example, if a delivery guy is two minutes late, we don't care about the specific events he experiences during these two minutes. What we want is to arrive on time. It cannot be said that we have lost the ability to care for others, but between caring for ourselves and the distant (on screen), too many tangible aspects of life are weakened or even excluded. Scholars have also studied how smartphones amplify the "self" based on people's reading habits using smartphones - people are hunted by "homogenized" algorithms and no longer need to face different "others", just like the constantly lit screen often reflects only their own face. This situation has made sociologists worry that "rational negotiation" between different opinions will become increasingly difficult. At the same time, it is alarming that self centeredness and self fragility are often two sides of the same coin, which can partly explain some of the current trends in social emotional issues. Although some people still have doubts about the accuracy of social science research, many countries and regions have put the prevention of addiction to social media on the agenda. At the end of 2024, the Senate of the Australian Federal Parliament passed the Cybersecurity (Minimum Age for Social Media) Amendment 2024, which prohibits minors under the age of 16 from using most social media platforms. The relevant regulations will take effect 12 months later. For adults, experts from various countries' suggestions focus on "putting down your phone", "getting close to nature", "increasing offline interaction", etc. They also point out that some adults choose to stay on screens to escape certain difficulties in real life. So, this is more like a seesaw game, creating an interaction and leverage between offline and online life, maintaining a delicate balance. After all, in the long run, the boundaries between online and offline, virtual and real will gradually break down or even disappear. (New Society)