Why so many people think the entire internet should apply to them | CNN

Scrolling on TikTok during a break one day, I watched a content creator named Kara make a vegan bean soup recipe to boost her iron levels during her menstrual period. “All my anemic girlies this one is for you,” the young woman from central Florida, who goes by her first name online, wrote in the caption. Many people liked and commented positively on her video, but others had questions: “What if I don’t like beans?” and “Can I substitute the beans with something else?” Um … what? I wondered why they didn’t just look for a different recipe. Welcome to the strange phenomenon of people expressing anger or helplessness to online content creators or writers who don’t acknowledge their specific lifestyles or limitations. “This is something that has always existed but has been very much exacerbated by social media and accelerated rather intensely in … recent years,” said Dr. Jessica Maddox, an associate professor of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia. This is ‘brain rot,’ a slang term with something to it Those comments on Kara’s August 2023 video made it go viral and gave the behavior its trendy “bean soup theory” nickname tha