Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language

by Adam Aleksic

Whenever people make fun of the “Gen Z slang” or “Gen Alpha slang” being spread on TikTok, they usually point to obtrusive words. It’s much easier to notice ridiculous-sounding words like “gyat” and “skibidi,” but those never had staying power because they were far too in-your-face about it. Slang terms like “function” and “side-eye,” however, are much more likely to fly under the radar, because they consist of already familiar words and are remarked on much less frequently. A good rule of thumb is that if someone can make fun of you for saying something, it’s probably obtrusive. That’s why Gretchen couldn’t make “fetch” happen in Mean Girls: It was too noticeable.

Poe’s law: “Any sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken for a sincere expression of those views,”