Not to discount how much cognitive disease these internet weirdos are spreading, but when I was a kid I’d listen to Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell every night on a portable radio. It was probably even more severe brain rot, with stories about Area 51 aliens or how to deal with hauntings in your garage. I used to believe it was all real and I’d end up a psychic or something someday.
Brainrot media has always existed, there’s just more of it now and it’s more easily accessed. Back when I was a kid you had to go to a convention or learn how to operate a ham radio, but it was all the same thing. Go look around Usenet forums from the 80s too