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submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Every generation has slang, but Gen Alpha’s has a particularly unhinged quality, some parents say. Still, experts say their bad rep isn’t totally deserved.

In the beginning, there was “skibidi.”

It appeared abruptly in the lexicons of kids under 14 — the first slang term unique to Generation Alpha. Parents’ ears perked up as they began to hear it around the dinner table. It could mean bad, cool, or nothing at all, their kids explained. Then a dozen more incomprehensible terms followed suit.

Gen Z’s “slay” and “tea” are officially vintage, giving way to “sigma,” “gyatt” and “fanum tax.”

Everyone’s getting whiplash.

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[-] LEONHART@slrpnk.net 89 points 3 months ago
[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 87 points 3 months ago

This is not even vaguely new.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The difference is the rate at which new slang is born.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

The primary difference is that the slang ends up born (and abandoned) on the national and international levels, whereas in times past slang would become lodged in the regional vernacular first, and some of it would never move 'up' to replace old slang. In a sense, then, there was more slang in days past - it just was less 'standardized'.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

I kinda get that. We called anime "Japanimation" in the 80s. Nothing racist there for y'all haters, just what we called it. But you're right, never heard that term outside my local group.

[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 63 points 3 months ago

Every generation has this article published about them, congratulations, you are officially old and out of touch.

[-] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 3 months ago

As a Gen-Z, I feel this divide is the result of our gen growing up on the internet and Gen-Alpha growing up in the internet. Like culturally I feel Gen-Z still had roots to reality hidden behind layers of absurdism and abstraction. Gen-Alpha however feels like it's generating new cultural landmarks with no connections to reality.

Like, skibidi was absurdist humor, which is now being covered by absurdist layers. It's absurdism all the way down! It's like some twisted form of enlightenment. To clarify I don't say this in a necessarily negative light, I just think it's interesting from the viewpoint of our species as a whole.

I know Gen-Z was experiencing a stage of wanting to assert real connections to the world against algorithmic forces, before covid that is, now I think we're a little scattered again.

[-] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

I wouldn't worry too much about the ranting of an out-of-touch opinion writer caught in a moral panic.

They're just annoyed that the world is changing around them. People have made the same complaint about literally every generation before.

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

I was thinking about this last night because I saw this meme and felt like it was very "boomer humor" which got me thinking about how humor has seemingly changed throughout the years.

It does seem absurdism is much more common nowadays, however it's not just that either, there's layers of nuance usually that makes it "deeper" as well.

Would be interesting to see a deep dive on how humor has evolved through the years aside from my biases. You make an interesting point about it being "no connections to reality" but I'm not sure it's entirely correct.

[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 35 points 3 months ago

Dividing us into generations is a way to make us feel segmented and separated. The concept of generations is made up, we shouldn't feel tribal about the era we were born in.

[-] deuleb_biezelbob@programming.dev 29 points 3 months ago
[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 28 points 3 months ago

It could mean bad, cool, or nothing at all, their kids explained

So it's a Schrodingly word

[-] 1stTime4MeInMCU@mander.xyz 31 points 3 months ago

It’s literally as literal as literally

[-] protist@mander.xyz 21 points 3 months ago

Fuck fucking fuck fuckers...FUCK

[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

^^^^wiki

[-] Spot@startrek.website 4 points 3 months ago

Fuck!! Fucking fucker's fucked!

[-] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.

[-] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago

Not any different from, cool, hot, or ass.

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[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 27 points 3 months ago

They'll go away soon enough. It's just been dialed up to 11 through media like tiktok.

[-] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 24 points 3 months ago

the urban word dictionary is about to get even more popular

[-] riskable@programming.dev 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I think you mean it's about to go gyatt, skibidy sigma before the kids get older and it gets an ohio negative aura.

[-] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

It's about to go booty elite?

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Hyper dingo, no skort!

[-] hactar42@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 months ago

This is basically repeated every 10 years. Some of them will stick around for the long-term some will die. I don't for see skibidi or gyatt stick around long-term. At least not unironical. I'm in my 40s and I don't have any peers who still use words like "phat" or "whateves". But someone saying bling would not seem out of place.

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Remember that year or two where everything cool was "da bomb"?

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago

I've been watching Language Jones lately, and I think he's got a good and academically well-informed take on this topic.

[-] themadcodger@kbin.earth 5 points 3 months ago

Thank you for that. I have a new subscription to binge.

[-] msage@programming.dev 15 points 3 months ago

Can't wait for some local news with traditional reporting of teen slang:

"Is your teen child using slang like 'no cap'? It could indicade that they are having Sex-Without-Protection. More at 11."

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Quit taxing their gig so hard-core cruster.

[-] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 12 points 3 months ago

Get hip with the new jive, daddy-o!

[-] Boozilla@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Reminds me of Nadsat from the movie, A Clockwork Orange. Haven't read the novel yet.

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

The book is amazing.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

There's a lot more in the novel that isn't in the film.

That said, the copy that Kubrick used to adapt into the film did not have the final chapter of the novel (it was an edited down American version) and it is such a better ending than the book.

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Slang is stupid, film at 11:00. This is just old people complaining about young people. We've been doing this for literally thousands of years. It's not newsworthy, not even in in the modern age of 6 second attention spans.

[-] A_A@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

After having thoroughly learned the language of their parents, around 8 or maybe 12 years old, children are good at learning languages and they play at doing better than their parents ... inventing things ... testing them.
They want to know that they are good enough and to prove this to themselves they have to do better in some way than their parents.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I thought I was getting old, but I’m proud to say that I knew most of these terms. I still got it, baby!

Skibidi.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

My 14-year-old isn't especially slangy, but occasionally she asks me if I've heard some term or other, and I invariably haven't. Most recently, it was "Scene," which is apparently some sort of fashion aesthetic.

[-] Zahille7@lemmy.world 35 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

"Scene" was around when I was in middle and high school around 10 years ago.

They were like the preppy goth kids, who listened to Avril Lavigne and such.

Edit: there's also a Hollywood Undead song that has the lines "wake up, shave beard, grab beer, put on some scene gear"

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

I'm 47 years old. I have never even heard of Hollywood Undead.

[-] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

I mean this with complete sincerity: Lucky you.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

And Harry don't mind if he don't make the scene. He's got a daytime job, he's doing all right.

Avril Lavigne? Of Lavigne and Shirley? ;)

[-] msage@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago

Holywood Undead has some rizz skibidy, no cap frfr

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 1 points 3 months ago

Scene fashion is weirdly making a comeback lately, too.

[-] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

‘Scene’ kids were the Hot Topic emo kids when I was a teenager 20ish years ago. As someone who was into 2nd wave emo, it always made me die a little that ‘Scene’ is what most people think of when they hear ‘emo’.

[-] Paddzr@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago
[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 9 points 3 months ago

It means "gossip about drama". "Spilling" the "tea" is talking about said gossip.

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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
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