Are brainrot memes the best way to educate Gen Alpha?

The U.S. education system is in the midst of a major crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated youth behavioral issues, students are chronically absent from class in alarming numbers, and the ubiquity of smartphones is causing headaches for teachers. Schools need to address these widespread ills, and one solution might come from an unlikely source: Brainrot memes.

For the uninitiated, the “brainrot” genre applies to videos that parrot Generation Alpha memes in ways that appeal to today’s kids. Skibidi Toilet is a perfect example. If you don’t understand why millions of youngsters are watching heads pop out of toilets, congrats. Your brain hasn’t fully rotted yet.

It’s not just Skibidi. Brainrot memes are a big deal on platforms like YouTube, where creators use PDF-to-brainrot tools to pair reposted content with the memes that guarantee big viewership from Gen Alpha. So if you’ve ever seen a text-to-speech program read a Reddit thread while an oddly satisfying compilation plays at the same time, or if you’ve had SpongeBob give you a brainrot test in front of a Minecraft backdrop, you’ve encountered the work of the PDF-to-brainrot industry.

The PDF-to-brainrot phenomenon has become so massive that it may even be showing up in classrooms. Companies like Coconote and StudyRot let users turn their study guides into brainrot videos, making educational material more palatable for the short attention spans of Gen Alpha. Some of those even translate the material into Gen Alpha slang, so if you’ve ever wanted to know who won the battle of Gyattysburg, now’s your chance to find out.

According to videos popping up on TikTok, teachers are starting to employ PDF-to-brainrot generators in their classrooms. But as TechCrunch notes, some of the creators posting those videos have sponsorship deals with companies like Coconote, so the actual prevalence of these tools within schools is unclear.

The rise of PDF-to-brainrot services as an education aid lies at the intersection of two larger trends. The TikTokification of homework has become big business, with companies like Revyze attracting significant audiences by conveying lessons through vertical videos. YouTube has also unveiled a litany of educational features to assist students who prefer to study online.

Then there is the longstanding appeal of videos that pair an important message with an unrelated gameplay video or compilation. That tactic has become common in the political arena, where creators like Woke Karen and candidates like Kamala Harris pull in viewers with fun content before hitting them with serious messages.

It will be a while before teachers embrace SpongeBob, Skibidi, and MrBeast as their new aides, but the potential of brainrot-fueled education is certainly eye-catching. If Gen Alpha struggles to learn in a traditional classroom environment, we may need to bring the classroom to them — and that’s good news for creators of oddly satisfying videos.