In 2006, an American gent called Jack Dorsey started a website where you could share short messages. Called Twitter, the social media website would go on to change the world – and especially journalism.
Now called X, Twitter’s incredibly real-time nature and the fact that newsmakers use it heavily to reach their audiences means it has become indispensable to journalists. In fact, it is hard to be a journalist today without being on the platform.
As indispensable as it is though, for me Twitter became too much of a good thing. I have always been a news junkie and a platform like Twitter was like letting an alcoholic into the wine cellar. I became drunk – on the news and the debates around it. While commuting, in bed, on the pot – you name it, I had the Twitter app open and was reading every bit of news that every place in the world produced.
Did it do me any good? It did in fact. Twitter is a rare social media platform which, when used well, can increase knowledge. But in excess, it was clearly producing brain rot. There was too much news, too much information. I could see my circuits getting fried.
For this year, I stepped back. It was difficult at first but I forced myself. I read: going back to serious fiction after years of brain rot. I managed to finish off the nearly 600-page magic realist opus Tin Drum, the inspiration for my favourite novel Midnight’s Children. I managed to watch the beautiful 1984 Raj nostalgia TV show The Jewel in the Crown. But most importantly, I spent a lot of time with loved ones and friends.
As a journalist, it is difficult to escape Twitter. But I think in 2024 I did manage to escape brian rot.
