Everyone’s talking about “brain rot” but what does it actually mean, and is it even the right word? In this conversation, psychologist Lavina Nanda and two parents, Richa Pandey and Susmita, unpack what’s really going on when kids get glued to screens. In this excerpt from TOI Health Plus podcast, Nanda argues that brain rot isn’t about the screen itself but about disruption: broken sleep, skipped meals, meltdowns when the phone is taken away, and a shrinking amount of real play. Richa makes the case that parents, not children, are the ones who reach for a screen first and that boredom, far from being a problem, is where kids learn to be with themselves. Susmita shares how she’s replaced screen time with kitchen chopping boards, 3D globes, and joyful, low-pressure parenting instead of chasing outcomes.
