Are we cooked? How social media shapes your language w/ Adam Aleksic (from TED Tech)

This week, we’re sharing a special episode from TED Tech exploring Gen Z slang words like "unalive," "skibidi" and "rizz." Where do these words come from — and how do they get popular so fast? Linguist Adam Aleksic explores how the forces of social media algorithms are reshaping the way people talk and view their very own identities. Technology’s role in our lives is evolving fast. TED Tech helps you explore the riveting questions and tough challenges we’re faced with that sit at the intersection of technology and humanity. Listen in every Friday, with host, journalist Sherrell Dorsey, as TED speakers explore the way tech shapes how we think about society, science, design, business, and more. Listen to TED Tech wherever you get your podcasts or go to: https://link.mgln.ai/Ng9EKL See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:17Emily Kwong?

  Hey, short wavers. Emily Kwong here. So every generation has its own set of slang. My generation does, yours does. I'm sure words are coming to mind right now. And each word has its own interesting evolutionary story. But these days, there is a unique tool influencing language, and that is technology. Gen Z has popularized the words unalive, skibitty, riz. And fueling these and other phrases are algorithms. That's what we're excited to explore today in a special episode from the podcast TED Tech. Linguist Adam Alexic gets into the nitty gritty of how social media algorithms are reshaping the way we communicate and how we view ourselves. I hope you enjoy.

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• 2:26Speaker 04

  Language is this organic, fluid thing, constantly shifting and growing alongside humanity. And in the 21st century, our language might now be shaped by the spaces we're using it in, namely, the internet. Think about it. What if the very way we communicate, the words we choose, and the nuances of our slang are being influenced, subtly but significantly, by the algorithms that power our favorite social media platforms? It's a curious thought, isn't it? That a word might exist not just because a community coined it, but because a digital

• 3:06Speaker 04

  system favored it, amplified it, and pushed it into our collective consciousness. This is TED Tech, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective. I'm your host, Sherrell Dorsey. Our next speaker is a linguist who has had a front row seat to this evolution. Adam Alexic has watched firsthand how the digital currents are shaping the very fabric of our communication. Now he's here to share how words like "unalive" or "rizz" go from niche slang to mainstream phenomena, and the surprising, sometimes uncomfortable, implications of this algorithmic influence.

• 3:50Speaker 04

  Adam's talk is a reexamination of our own online habits, not to mention our relationship to our rapidly changing lexicon. And now, Adam Alexic takes the TEDx stage.

• 4:03Speaker 05

  How many of you are familiar with the word "unalive" as a synonym of "kill"? Show of hands. Okay, like, 80% of you? Great. Now, follow-up question. How many of you have heard the word "unalive" being used in person?

• 4:23Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm getting like forty, fifty percent?

• 4:26Speaker 05

  Great! Those of you that said "no" clearly aren't middle school teachers. If you spend enough time around 7th and 8th graders, you will hear them using the word. It'll mostly be in informal situations, but could show up in contexts like a student's essay on Hamlet's contemplation of un-aliving himself, or a classroom discussion on the un-aliving that happens in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And these aren't hypothetical situations. These are actual examples drawn from the thousand-plus middle school teachers I've surveyed about this word. It's a weird hobby of mine, I don't know. Clearly, for such a recent word, "un-alive" shows up in an impressive range of scenarios,

• 5:10Speaker 05

  but the main function appears to be euphemistic. Many kids use the word when they're uncomfortable talking about topics like death, since "un-alive" sounds like a less scary word. And in many ways, this is nothing new. We've been euphemizing death as long as we've had language. The word "decease," for example, comes from Latin "decesus," which was a euphemism for the previous Latin word for death, "mors." Apparently, even the Stoic Romans were as queasy about death as today's middle schoolers. But there is a crucial difference between "un-alive" and "decease," and that's that we only got the word "un-alive" because you can't say "kill" on TikTok. They have a mysterious algorithm that removes or suppresses any posts that might violate

• 5:53Speaker 05

  their community guidelines, so people got around with that with the word "un-alive." The middle schoolers don't know this. They see the word online or hear it from friends and assume it's a word like any other. And, fair enough, you probably didn't know where the word "decease" came from, unless you're some kind of etymology nerd. But "decease" didn't happen because it was impossible to carve the word "mors" into an ancient Roman tablet. We are entering an entirely new era of language change driven by social media algorithms.

• 6:26Speaker 05

  Como linguista e criador de conteúdo, estive em uma posição única para ver isso acontecer do interior. É quase paralisante, eu constantemente sinto como meu antigo idioma está sendo afetado. E julgando dos 40% de vocês que responderam ambas minhas perguntas, está começando a mudar seu idioma também. E não é apenas novos termos para evitar a censura algorítmica. A própria estrutura das mídias sociais está mudando de onde os termos vêm, como os termos se tornam populares e como rapidamente esses termos se espalham. Eu acredito que alguns de vocês possam estar familiarizados com esta música: "Tirando seu giat para o Rizler",

• 7:02Speaker 05

  "Você é tão skibidi", "Você é tão fantomtax", "Eu só quero ser o seu Sigma", "Freaking, venha aqui, dê-me o seu Ohio".

• 7:15Speaker 05

  Para aqueles de vocês fora do círculo, estas são as letras para a música do Rizler, um meme que foi massivamente viral o ano passado. Está cheio de termos de slang dos anos médios atual, como riz, giat e skibidi, e foi instrumental em popularizar esses termos para um público mais amplo. Isso é porque os algoritmos de mídias sociais recompensam a repetição. Se uma música é engraçada ou engraçada e as pessoas interagem com ela, o algoritmo então vai empurrar essa música para mais pessoas, já que está provado que impulsa a participação na aplicação. O mesmo é verdade para os memes, ou termos em geral, já que metadatas tendências como hashtags também serão empurradas para pessoas que anteriormente mostraram interesse em conteúdo semelhante. Os criadores são muito conscientes disso.

• 7:58Speaker 05

  E nós usamos ativamente áudios tendências ou hashtags para fazer nossos vídeos performar melhor. No wake da música do Rizler, por exemplo, vimos uma explosão de pessoas fazendo vídeos com os termos riz, giat e skibidi, porque eles sabiam que esses vídeos faria bem.

• 8:16Speaker 05

  E como resultado, os termos se espalharam.

• 8:20Speaker 05

  O idioma sempre foi um pouco como um vírus. Os termos são transmitidos de um host a outro, reproduzindo e mudando enquanto infectam diferentes pessoas nas redes sociais. Mas agora a natureza literalmente viral das mídias sociais está acelerando esse processo de início a fim. Em só um ano, um termo como o riz pode passar de total escuridão para se tornar o " palavra de ano" do Diccionário de Inglês Oxford.

• 8:49Speaker 05

  And the algorithm is the culprit, but influencers are the accomplices. We use whatever tricks we can to keep you entertained, because that makes our videos do better, which helps us earn a living. This means that we often end up creating and spreading words that help the system. For example, the suffix "core" has recently gotten very popular in Gen Z slang to describe specific aesthetics, like cottage core, or goblin core, or angel core. And on the surface level, these are cute. You watch a cottage core video, you like it. Later on, you get more cottage core content. You might even start to identify

• 9:32Speaker 05

  with the cottage core aesthetic. But here's the thing. It's all fake. The entire reason these aesthetics exist is because TikTok algorithm has decided that words like cottage core qualify as trending metadata. So creators respond by making more cottage core content that propagates the word, and then more people interact with it, which makes the word trendier. And this happens because social media algorithms want to make you identify with hyper-compartmentalized labels, since they can then give you extremely specific, commercialized content catering to that identity. Now that you're a cottage core person, you feel special every time you get a cottage core video. You're like, cottage core? Oh, the algorithm really knows me.

• 10:17Speaker 05

  The algorithm gave you that identity. You might even start buying cottage core clothing or cottage core decorations to fit your new lifestyle as a cottage core person, and that's exactly what they want. The craziest part is, they're not even trying to hide this. TikTok's business platform openly claims that subcultures are the new demographics, and then gives businesses ideas for how to profit off the cottage core aesthetic. Essentially, they're driving the mass production of identity-building labels in order to profit off all of us.

• 10:54Speaker 05

  And while there's nothing wrong with being on Cottage Core TikTok, it is a kind of echo chamber that affirms your Cottage Core personality.

• 11:03Speaker 05

  The same is true of any niche community created on social media. And on one hand, this is great for linguistics, because language change is always driven by groups with shared interests that have a shared need to invent new words. Unalive, for example, became a thing because mental health communities on TikTok needed a way to share their stories and spread resources.

• 11:23Speaker 05

  On the other hand, some of the linguistic communities created by the algorithm can be actively harmful.

• 11:29Speaker 05

  Many younger people have started using the suffix "pilled" to mean "convinced into a lifestyle."

• 11:37Speaker 05

  If I recently discovered that I really like eating burritos, for example, I can say, "I'm so burrito-pilled."

• 11:46Speaker 05

  But that word was formed through analogy with "black-pilled", a term meaning "convinced into incel ideology." Now, incels are a dangerous misogynistic group. They've perpetrated multiple terrorist attacks that have killed dozens of people, and yet somehow, the vocabulary is filtering into Gen Z slang because the algorithm gave these hate groups a space.

• 12:07Speaker 05

  I like to consume videos about urban design. And a few months back, I got a video about how great it is to be a parking lot-pilled pavement princess.

• 12:20Speaker 05

  Admittedly, I found the video pretty funny, and I liked it, which ended up getting me more urban design, incel-themed meme videos, like one about being fossil fuel-pilled and bad to the bone, and another about being a walk-pilled cardio-maxer.

• 12:39Speaker 05

  And a lot of people similarly encounter these words as they spread in ironic or meme contexts. Let's take another look at the Rizler song.

• 12:49Speaker 05

  The lyric "I just wanna be your sigma" refers to the concept of a sigma male, which incels use to describe their desired position outside of the social hierarchy. And again, on the surface level, it's a funny meme. It's innocent. Many people don't even know where it came from. But, for the few people who might be interested in the underlying idea, it's now more accessible to them because of the way that slang spreads on the internet. It starts in some corner of social media, becomes a viral meme, and along the way, the etymology is lost to a lot of people.

• 13:27Speaker 05

  And this doesn't only allow communities to harm us, it allows us to harm communities. Two of the main demographics that come up with modern slang are the gay and black communities, since marginalized groups consistently use language as a way to reclaim power.

• 13:44Speaker 05

  All of our most popular internet slang words: slay, serve, bussin', queen, cooked, ate, giat, many, many others, all come from queer or black culture. These words originated as a form of creative expression independent from the straight white norms of the English language. But when those words began to be used online, they were quickly taken by people who wanted to capitalize on the perceived coolness or comedic value of black and queer culture. When a word like "giat" goes from an African-American English pronunciation of "goddamn", to being used as a noun for "but" in memes like the Rizler song, it's ultimately exaggerated in a way that makes a farce of its pronunciation and meaning. Its original importance is diluted

• 14:29Speaker 05

  as it becomes widespread, and you can be sure that none of the middle schoolers saying "giat" are aware of its etymology.

• 14:37Speaker 05

  Unfortunately, just like the euphemization of "unalive" isn't new, the appropriation of African-American English also isn't new. We've been whitewashing black slang since the days of "cool" and "high five", which at this point have become so mainstream they're just seen as regular words.

• 14:53Speaker 05

  But once again, social media algorithms are a vehicle enabling and accelerating this process from start to finish. They create communities that feel like they have a space to use their words, and then open up those communities just enough to allow those words to spread. That's how we got "unalive", that's how we got "cottagecore", that's how we got "sigma", and that's how we got "giat".

• 15:19Speaker 05

  Whenever I post a video talking about one of these topics, I inevitably get the exact same comment: "We're so cooked."

• 15:30Speaker 05

  Meaning, "We're so screwed." Ironically, this is also TikTok slang coming from African-American English, but I wanted to address it. Are we, in fact, cooked?

• 15:43Speaker 05

  I know I've just painted a very bleak picture of the future of the English language, and there are a lot of concerning trends to unpack. But these trends all do follow the same historical patterns that we've seen, time and time again.

• 15:56Speaker 05

  I don't think we're sliding into a dystopian 1984 scenario because we're always coming up with new ways around media censorship. If a word gets bent, we'll just come up with another word, like we did with "unalive." I don't think middle schoolers are suffering from brain rot because younger generations always latch on to new slang as a way to build identity, and then older generations always say, "Ah, you're ruining the language." But just like the people who were saying "cool" and "high five" back in the day, the middle schoolers saying "rizz" and "guyat" and "skibitty toilet" aren't going to be incapable of writing an essay. I don't think our vocabulary is being corrupted by the commercialization of our language. We've already been using brand names like Kleenex and Google in everyday conversations, so Cottage Court isn't about to turn us into mindless consumer drones.

• 16:41Speaker 05

  I don't even think we're dangerously normalizing incel rhetoric. If anything, our slang is built on a shared mockery of incel ideas. When a kid says something like, "I'm so burrito-pilled," they're not saying that because they're black-pilled, but because the underlying idea is making fun of how incels talk. In fact, I think each of these words is a beautiful, colorful addition to the English language that reflects the diverse cultural moment we're all in. But I do think we should be aware. We should be aware when the way we're talking may have been conditioned by the algorithm. We should be aware when the words we're using may have been engineered to sell us things. We should be aware when our language regurgitates extremist rhetoric,

• 17:23Speaker 05

  and we should be aware when that language can be used to harm other people. We should be aware of etymology in general because it helps us better understand who we are today.

• 17:34Speaker 05

  We should be aware.

• 17:36Speaker 05

  And with that, I have just one final piece of slang for you. It's a common phrase used by younger people when we finish a long-winded explanation of something. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

• 17:57Emily Kwong?

  That was an episode of TED Tech. You can find more TED Talks and conversations about how the quickly evolving world of technology is shaping our lives on their feed. Check out TED Tech wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Have a great weekend, shortweavers. See you Monday.

• 18:37Speaker 02

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