"Before computers, a knowledge worker who had laboriously constructed essays in college quite likely wrote almost nothing for the rest of their working life. People talked face-to-face or on the phone, and dictated to secretaries."
Real men didn't type.
Even lawyers, whose job is producing written text, rarely typed; they wrote on yellow pads. Legal secretaries turned that into clean copy.
Engineers on the Apollo program were still dictating to secretaries.
Something I have not seen discussed is the highly dynamic semantics of the annoying Gen Alpha variant of BrainRot. It has this fascinating aspect of slang with meanings that can shift in combination with other terms: Skibidi, Sigma, 6-7, Ohio -- Not only do these have flexible semantics in the first place, their meaning can dynamically change in the context of other such terms... if any meaning is intended at all.
As an example, "sigma" could be used as "He's so sigma!" (positive connotations) or "What the sigma!" (negative connotations) or "Sigma skibidi Ohio!" (what the sigma?!?)
And then there are suffixes like "maxxing" which seem straightforward ("bench-maxxing") but can be used in creative combinations, like somebody used "second-story-maxxing" to mean "going upstairs." Not quite Shakespeare, but funny.
I am no linguist but this seems unprecedented. At least ChatGPT thinks there is precedence, but only gave examples of nonsense terms in literature (like "The Jabberwocky") and counter-cultural slang or art (like Dadaism) or meanings that shifted over time.
However this idea of semi-defined words and memes that get combinatorially and dynamically redefined -- or even undefined -- seems different. I think this is more than just The Algorithm, it's more a spillover of a subculture into the mainstream. It's like slang that has intentionally internalized trolling and arbitrary word-coining as part of normal discourse.
>>> However this idea of semi-defined words and memes that get combinatorially and dynamically redefined -- or even undefined -- seems different
Take a look back at Shakespeare again. Every line has this sort of semantic shapeshifting quality, where the meaning and intent can be radically changed, sometimes multiple times, after each successive line, and on top of that, the rhyme and meter are all proper and structured. Sometimes the puns and memes and 5 dimensional wordplay are really dependent on knowing the culture and current events of the time, but a whole lot of it hits on human basics.
It'd be really cool if a whole generation had that sort of wordplay and meta-meme construction kit baked into their slang, and kids are growing up in worlds where meaning and memes are radically changing in ways humans have never dealt with before. Makes sense that their language would be malleable and suited to purpose.
I read both books too and when I saw the title they're what it reminded me of and then it was confirmed when I clicked the link, so it's nice to predict something then be right.
I would definitely recommend people to read them, in the order of their publishing, as internet speak changes fast enough to have a difference between 2019 and 2025.
My son would point out that the "incel cesspool" actually absorbed a lot of its vocabulary from 4chan and other "manosphere" spaces and there are a lot of people who talk that way who are not incels.
For instance that Clavicular guy who was profiled in the New York Times claims he is having sex and it seems he was actually "dating" a female influencer when he was being interviewed by an NYT reporter.
Yes, Algospeak goes through this. It's funny to see words like mogging or looksmaxxing be common internet parlance, it's as if the terms lose their toxic power through widespread usage, just as I recall the story of the KKK having their secrets leaked via a radio program such that kids started talking about "grand wizards" for fun [0].
I know this is going to sound like an "old man yells at cloud" moment, but I cannot get over the number of people using "cause" as a replacement for "because."
Maybe it was my time spent in the book publishing industry, but it causes me pain every time I see it.
It's a contraction to 'cause just with the apostrophe elided. Everyone knows what they mean and knows that this cause is different than the other verb or noun "cause." I also sometimes use its instead of it's in text because it's too annoying to fix the autocorrected (or not) spelling on a phone keyboard, not because I don't know the difference.
"Before computers, a knowledge worker who had laboriously constructed essays in college quite likely wrote almost nothing for the rest of their working life. People talked face-to-face or on the phone, and dictated to secretaries."
Real men didn't type.
Even lawyers, whose job is producing written text, rarely typed; they wrote on yellow pads. Legal secretaries turned that into clean copy. Engineers on the Apollo program were still dictating to secretaries.
Something I have not seen discussed is the highly dynamic semantics of the annoying Gen Alpha variant of BrainRot. It has this fascinating aspect of slang with meanings that can shift in combination with other terms: Skibidi, Sigma, 6-7, Ohio -- Not only do these have flexible semantics in the first place, their meaning can dynamically change in the context of other such terms... if any meaning is intended at all.
As an example, "sigma" could be used as "He's so sigma!" (positive connotations) or "What the sigma!" (negative connotations) or "Sigma skibidi Ohio!" (what the sigma?!?)
And then there are suffixes like "maxxing" which seem straightforward ("bench-maxxing") but can be used in creative combinations, like somebody used "second-story-maxxing" to mean "going upstairs." Not quite Shakespeare, but funny.
I am no linguist but this seems unprecedented. At least ChatGPT thinks there is precedence, but only gave examples of nonsense terms in literature (like "The Jabberwocky") and counter-cultural slang or art (like Dadaism) or meanings that shifted over time.
However this idea of semi-defined words and memes that get combinatorially and dynamically redefined -- or even undefined -- seems different. I think this is more than just The Algorithm, it's more a spillover of a subculture into the mainstream. It's like slang that has intentionally internalized trolling and arbitrary word-coining as part of normal discourse.
>>> However this idea of semi-defined words and memes that get combinatorially and dynamically redefined -- or even undefined -- seems different
Take a look back at Shakespeare again. Every line has this sort of semantic shapeshifting quality, where the meaning and intent can be radically changed, sometimes multiple times, after each successive line, and on top of that, the rhyme and meter are all proper and structured. Sometimes the puns and memes and 5 dimensional wordplay are really dependent on knowing the culture and current events of the time, but a whole lot of it hits on human basics.
It'd be really cool if a whole generation had that sort of wordplay and meta-meme construction kit baked into their slang, and kids are growing up in worlds where meaning and memes are radically changing in ways humans have never dealt with before. Makes sense that their language would be malleable and suited to purpose.
I read both books too and when I saw the title they're what it reminded me of and then it was confirmed when I clicked the link, so it's nice to predict something then be right.
I would definitely recommend people to read them, in the order of their publishing, as internet speak changes fast enough to have a difference between 2019 and 2025.
My son would point out that the "incel cesspool" actually absorbed a lot of its vocabulary from 4chan and other "manosphere" spaces and there are a lot of people who talk that way who are not incels.
For instance that Clavicular guy who was profiled in the New York Times claims he is having sex and it seems he was actually "dating" a female influencer when he was being interviewed by an NYT reporter.
Yes, Algospeak goes through this. It's funny to see words like mogging or looksmaxxing be common internet parlance, it's as if the terms lose their toxic power through widespread usage, just as I recall the story of the KKK having their secrets leaked via a radio program such that kids started talking about "grand wizards" for fun [0].
[0] PDF warning - https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-prese...
I know this is going to sound like an "old man yells at cloud" moment, but I cannot get over the number of people using "cause" as a replacement for "because."
Maybe it was my time spent in the book publishing industry, but it causes me pain every time I see it.
The horror: https://x.com/search?q=cause&src=typed_query&f=live
It's a contraction to 'cause just with the apostrophe elided. Everyone knows what they mean and knows that this cause is different than the other verb or noun "cause." I also sometimes use its instead of it's in text because it's too annoying to fix the autocorrected (or not) spelling on a phone keyboard, not because I don't know the difference.
Not really different from "just cuz" is it? Though I suppose it is a little worse, given that it's a different word, not an obvious contraction.
It doesn't make me want to explode like "pacific" instead of "specific" does...