There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence.

Ronald Reagan

In December 2024, Oxford made an announcement that had the internet in stitches (or as they say, rolling on the floor laughing): it officially recognized the word brainrot. Not only did it recognize it, the word brainrot became the Oxford word of the year, winning over by more than 37,000 votes.

Brainrot, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, refers to the to the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”

In today’s day and age, all social media platforms have incorporated the use of short-form video format named reels. Although beneficial in transferring maximum information in short amount of time required, reels have had adverse effects on its consumers as well, the most prominent of them being the shortened attention span. According to an experiment conducted by Dr. Gloria Mark (Professor: Informatics at the University of California, Irvine) initially in 2003, the average attention span of human beings has significantly declined over the past two decades:

Year	Average Attention Span
2003	150 seconds
2013	75 seconds
2023	47 seconds

Brainrot has taken over the internet by the storm, and can be termed as a modern day digital plague, adversely affecting our critical thinking and making us lose our precious time. Can Islam help us fight this plague? Let’s break it down and have a look:

1. Restrain Social Media Use

As the famous author Zig Ziglar once said, “The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that it exists.” We need to acknowledge the fact that the social media platforms actually push towards making the reels the new norm, before we understand ways to tackle it.

The advice of the Prophet ﷺ, mentioned above, extends towards the way we use social media these days as well. Endless reel consumption, or as we call it, doomscrolling, often depicts content that is of little to no use in our lives, Time management tool, introduced by Meta for both Instagram and Facebook, helps us maintain a daily time limit to utilize either of the platforms. We must start by using this tool to restrain our social media utilization.

2. Increase Focus Time

In the previous article, we discussed on what is focus time and how we can use it to enhance our work-life balance. However, focus time can also be utilized to counter brainrot.

The Prophet ﷺ strictly advised against wasting time, especially during one’s youth, and in some narrations, it is mentioned that a person’s youth will be questioned during the day of judgement. Implementing focus time directly counters distractions, whether it is during our working hours or leisure activities, and thus, by staying away from distractions, we do away with social media content that results in brainrot. It is also worth mentioning that focus time also enhances our productivity at work and creativity outside work.

3. Consume Quality Content

It is important to understand that social media, or its content, isn’t inherently harmful or useless. Social media, like any other tool in cyberspace, can be of great use and information if used carefully.

When we have successfully restrained ourselves from overusing the social media and have incorporated focus time, we can start consuming better content that can help us in our walks of life. Start by exploring content creators that provide a form of education, be it in academics, sports, information technology, soft skills, so on and so forth, and follow their content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, etc. instead of low-quality content.

We must remember, that the questioning of our eyes, ears and hearts isn’t restricted to the real life, but also extends and applies to what we see in the cyberspace as well.

4. Pursue Delayed Gratification

Lastly, the ultimate weapon against the plague of brainrot is the pursuit of delayed gratification instead of instant gratification.

We all are well aware of the fact that social media algorithm rewards us with instant gratification, prioritizing short-form content over a long-form one. When our needs and desires are that easily satisfied, it becomes more difficult for us to pursue long term goal and vision, leaving us unproductive, demotivated, and in some cases, even self-destructive.

Islam, on the other hand, advices and pushes us to delay our gratification. When there are no means to obtain immediate pleasure or happiness, it becomes easier to set long term goals with a vision. The pursuit of that goal, in turn, helps us develop self-control as well as a structured routine in our day-to-day lives that helps us move one step closer to the goal each day.

In conclusion, we can say that brainrot has become a serious issue in today’s day and age, and has affected people of all age groups, be it children, teenagers, young or old. Brainrot eventually affects our critical thinking and harms our creativity, preventing us from exploring our skills, potential and our talents. Unfortunately, the social media algorithm often prioritizes short-form content that can gain more views in a small amount of time over long-form content that has lesser viewership despite having a quality content. Through Islam, we can incorporate changes in our lifestyle in order to tackle brainrot, thus preserving our mental health and creativity.

You don’t have to be an expert. No one is expecting you to be an expert. All you need to do is show up and be you.

Ruth Soukup

Imposter syndrome has been popularly described as a psychological phenomenon whereby an individual feels that he/she may be exposed as a fraud because they do not possess the talent and skills that others feel they do.

Imposter syndrome creates self-doubt, low self-esteem, and a constant fear that you won’t perform up to the expectations. This, in turn, forces us to constantly attribute our success to external factors, like A+ grades, number of sales closed, so on and so forth.

Over a period of time, imposter syndrome has become widespread and common amongst the youth, despite not being termed as a diagnosable mental illness. Can Islam help us tackle this syndrome that constantly sabotages our growth? Let’s have a look.

1. The Luck Factor:

One of the harsh realities of life is that some people are more blessed than the others. Some people are born intelligent, some are born in rich and well-off families, some are born in first world countries, the list goes on.

Such people have not really put an effort to earn these blessings, they simply have been provided to them by God, and there’s nothing good or bad about it, for everything in life is a test, from an Islamic perspective. At times, we are blessed with an opportunity that we feel we didn’t really work hard to earn. We may be blessed with a great professor, or a good boss, an amazing work-life balance, a house at a really good location, etc.

The imposter syndrome kicks in when we question what have we really done to earn such things, whereas Islam tells us that just because you didn’t work hard towards it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have it. Every blessing is from The God, and God blesses whomsoever He wishes to.

2. With Great Power…Comes Great Responsibility:

Even if you feel that you’ve got something you didn’t really earn through hard work and sacrifice, remember that every opportunity comes with a responsibility, and every achievement comes with an answerability.

Suppose you become a team leader in an organization. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough to be deserving of the title, but maybe, God placed you in that role because the previous lead wasn’t considerate of the team members. So now, the blessing that you have, transforms into a responsibility that you must fulfill.

3. You’re Not Alone:

It is essential to acknowledge the fact that overall we are not as strong as we claim ourselves to be. There are times when the consequences faced by us are not as dire or challenging, yet we easily break down during these times and trials.

The Holy Qur’an establishes the fact that mankind is created weak, and it is only God who lightens our burdens. Hence, whenever you feel you have been given a huge responsibility to handle, always remember God and do your best to handle every situation.

4. One Day at a Time

At the end of the day, we must learn that overthinking leads to nothing but self-destruction. There are things that are out of our control and/or influence, and thus, thinking too much about them is not going to solve them. Whether its a new college, new organization, new role, or even a new country that you’ve moved to, give yourself time to settle down and learn about your roles and responsibilities before you start worrying about the long run.

It must be understood that being patient means we continue to do our work and fulfill our responsibilities. It doesn’t mean we stop working and decide to sit idle; it means we ignore our worries regarding the things we cannot control and leave them to God.

In conclusion, we can say that the imposter syndrome is neither uncommon, especially in the corporate environment, nor anything new that disrupts our mental health. It is simply fueled internally by self-doubt and sometimes, by a less-than-friendly social environment externally. In order to tackle the imposter syndrome, we must recognize our capabilities and gradually work towards improving ourselves, both professionally as well as personally.

“You are meant to be here. There are no coincidences. It’s all happening the way it was meant to be.”

Anthony Horowitz

Have you ever thought about how life would’ve turned out to be had you made so-and-so decision 5 years ago, or how it would’ve been better if so-and-so had happened instead of what actually happened? Well, the good news is, you’re not the only one who thinks that way. This is a rather common psychological phenomenon called upward counterfactual thinking.

Counterfactual thinking, as the name suggests, is a “counter to the facts” thinking, consisting of “What if” scenarios (not necessarily the Marvel ones). Counterfactual thinking is of two types: upward counterfactual thinking, which is when we think what better could’ve happened and downward counterfactual thinking, which is when we think that something worse could’ve happened, and are thankful for our current situation.

Now let’s have a look at what Islam says regarding counterfactual thinking.

1. Believing in God’s plan

Firstly, if a person believes in God, they need to believe in not just God’s existence, but also God’s planning. Suppose you fail in an interview, and you feel terrible for not getting through, but then a few days or weeks later, you get another interview for a much better organization, and at a much higher pay. Turns out, had you been selected in your previous interview, you would’ve never gotten this opportunity.

2. Downward Counterfactual Thinking

As stated, downward counterfactual thinking refers to being thankful to your current situation. Sure, you could’ve scored an A instead of a B, but it could’ve been an F as well. Sure, you’re stuck in a low-paying job, but you could’ve been unemployed as well. We must be thankful for our current situation. and then work towards making it better, which brings us to the next point.

3. Improving the situation

Counterfactual thinking doesn’t always have to result in a setback, sometimes it can also be used to improve the situation. If you feel you could’ve done something better, there will always be another chance to do it better, and not repeat the same mistake twice. The Prophet ﷺ advised us to always learn from our mistakes, for it is a sign of a true believer.

4. Being patient

In the end, we must realize that some situations are out of our control. Sometimes we can do absolutely nothing to evade ourselves from a calamity. Covid-19 has been one such situation; people lost their jobs, their loved ones, their relatives, or even their own lives, despite every measurable precaution. What do we do in such a situation? We endure, and we remain patient. Is it easy? Absolutely not. But we believe that God doesn’t will ill for us. Maybe there is a big picture that we can’t see today, but will see it in a month, or a year, or even a decade, and realize why it all happened the way it all happened.

In conclusion, we can say that counterfactual thinking is not an uncommon phenomenon, and instead of running away from it, we must first understand it, and then try to reflect upon our situation, and see if we can improve it. If we can, we must, and if we cannot, we must let it go.

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” – Charles Bukowski.

The quote reflects a very common cognitive bias in social psychology, known as Dunning-Kruger effect. It was given by David Dunning and Justin Kruger.

The effect follows a very interesting path. Initially, a person begins from (or close to) the origin when he/she has no prior knowledge of a subject or topic. Then, with only a small gain in knowledge, the person’s confidence surges to a peak point where he/she believes that he/she knows everything about the subject/topic. This is the point where they commit a mistake or error, thereby reducing their confidence after realizing there’s more than meets the eye. The confidence becomes almost inversely proportional to the knowledge being gained until it reaches the lowest in the curve, before gradually increasing again.

Now, how does the Dunning-Kruger effect relate to Islam? Well, the effect has been discussed by Dr. Yasir Qadhi in one of his lectures, where he describes how, even in Islam, there are people who, after gaining only some knowledge, become over-confident and even arrogant in their approach towards others. However, the more knowledge they gain, the more humble they become, because they realize how much they do not know as of yet.

Let us have a look at the verses that support this cognitive bias, and how Islam guides us to avoid it:

1. Refrain from commenting without knowledge

The first and most important thing to do is to stop following things that we have no knowledge of. For example, if we are unsure of a news we received, we must never forward or spread that news until and unless we have verified it and have gained enough knowledge regarding it.

It usually goes against our ego to admit our lack of knowledge regarding a subject, hence it becomes difficult to acknowledge our shortcomings. At times like these, its important to realize that none of us are perfect and that our capacity is limited. It is only a human nature to not have knowledge about everything and anything, and it doesn’t make us inferior to anyone else.

2. Ask God to increase your knowledge

Once we’ve acknowledged our lack of knowledge regarding a subject or a field, the first step is to ask God to increase us in knowledge. Now you may ask, why must we ask God to increase us in knowledge and how is this the first viable step?

Firstly, as Muslims, we believe that knowledge comes from God, since God is All-knowing. Secondly, everything in Islam is related to our intention. If our intention is to really seek knowledge to benefit others, surely God will open doors for us. However, if we have ill intentions, then we are bound to be misguided in our pursuit of knowledge.

Thirdly, consider this as the initiation point of your knowledge seeking process. For example, if you wish to search for books on history on Google, you must give the input to the Google Search Engine first before it can generate results for your query. Similarly, we need to first ask God if we are to educate ourselves on a particular topic or subject.

3. Don’t be hesitant to ask others

The next viable step is to seek people who have knowledge in that subject or field and consult them. This doesn’t confine to physically approaching a person or organization to seek knowledge, but watching educational videos, reading articles or books, watching debates, etc. is also included in this step, all thanks to the internet.

Seeking knowledge from experts of a particular field brings forth a lot of unknown facts, hence one must diversify his/her teachers as well.

4. Spread the knowledge

Once we’ve gained enough knowledge and understanding, it is then recommended to spread that knowledge in order to benefit the society and humanity at large.

Educating those who do not know will also prevent the occurrence of Dunning-Kruger effect, helping them avoid the initial surge in confidence with little to no knowledge. Hence, they’d be able to avoid the crucial mistakes thereby eliminating the Dunning-Kruger effect.

However, it must be noted that the knowledge gained must not be misused in order to harm someone, e.g. spreading hate, brainwashing, etc. The Prophet ﷺ has clearly warned that the law of gaining the same reward, as that gained by the one receiving the knowledge, is also valid for gaining the sins in the similar manner. Hence, we must have good intentions and clear knowledge before imparting it onto others. Even though we cannot have full knowledge of things, we can still educate others within the boundaries of what we’ve learnt.

In conclusion, we find that Dunning-Kruger effect is a very common phenomenon, which, if ignored, can yield some devastating results due to serious mistakes and errors. However, the effect can be avoided if we acknowledge our shortcomings and understand that we know little to nothing. Then, with proper guidance and dedicated pursuit of knowledge, we can not only educate ourselves but also others, and therefore impart beneficial knowledge to mankind at large.