Algospeak
Adam Aleksic (UK, 17 July) (US, 15 July))
Nothing makes you feel old like being bamboozled by slang. Even the chapter titles of Adam Aleksic鈥檚 Algospeak: How social media is transforming the future of language have this effect. 鈥淪ticking Out Your Gyat For The Rizzler鈥� and 鈥淲ordpilled Slangmaxxing鈥� remind me that, as a millennial, I am as close in age to boomers as I am to today鈥檚 Generation Alpha.
Aleksic, a linguist and content creator (@etymologynerd), sets out to illuminate a new era of language innovation driven by social media, particularly short-form video platforms such as TikTok. The 鈥渁lgospeak鈥� of the book鈥檚 title is conventionally used to describe euphemisms and other ways to get round online censorship, with recent examples including 鈥渦nalive鈥� (referencing death or suicide) or 鈥渟eggs鈥� (sex).
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But the author makes the case for expanding the definition to include all aspects of language influenced by 鈥渢he algorithm鈥� 鈥� which is itself a euphemistic term to describe the various, often highly secretive processes social media platforms use to decide which content to serve to users and in what order.
Aleksic draws on his experience making a living online 鈥� in his case, through educational videos about language. Like any content creator, he is incentivised to appease the algorithm, and this means choosing words carefully. A video he made on the etymology of the word 鈥減en鈥� (tracing back to the Latin 鈥減enis鈥�) fell foul of sexual content rules, while another analysing the controversial slogan 鈥渇rom the river to the sea鈥� had its reach limited.
Meanwhile, videos on trending Gen Alpha terms, such as 鈥渟kibidi鈥� (a largely nonsense word with roots in scat singing) and 鈥済yat鈥� (鈥済oddamn鈥� or 鈥渁ss鈥�), performed particularly well. His experiences show how creators adapt their language for algorithmic gains, causing certain words to spread further online and, in the most successful cases, offline too. When Aleksic surveyed school teachers, he found many such terms have become regular classroom slang; some children even learn the word 鈥渦nalive鈥� before 鈥渟uicide鈥�.
He is sharpest on his special subject, etymology, tracing how the algorithm propels words from online subcultures into the internet mainstream. The misogynistic incel community is the most prolific contributor to modern slang, he says, precisely because it is so radicalised, which can supercharge the development of an in-group language.
Aleksic remains mostly non-judgmental about language trends. 鈥淯nalive鈥�, he points out, is really no different from earlier euphemisms such as 鈥渄eceased鈥�, while 鈥渟kibidi鈥� is akin to 鈥淪cooby-Doo鈥�. It is only recently that we categorised slang in terms of arbitrarily defined generations, which he argues is often inaccurate and lends a toxic framing to normal language evolution.
Things are slightly more complex when words owe their mainstream use to cultural appropriation. A lot of today鈥檚 slang terms, like 鈥渃ool鈥� before them, can be traced back to Black communities ( 鈥渢hicc鈥�, 鈥渂ruh鈥�). Others have roots in the LGBTQ ballroom scene (鈥渟lay鈥�, 鈥測ass鈥�, 鈥渜ueen鈥�). Widespread adoption can divorce these words from their history, which is often tied to social struggles, and can even reinforce negative stereotypes about the communities that spawned them.
It is hard to prevent this context collapse 鈥� such is the fate of successful slang. Social media has rapidly shortened timelines of linguistic innovation, which makes Algospeak an essential update, but also leads to it becoming out of date quickly. The underlying insights on how technology shapes language, however, will stay relevant 鈥� as long as the algorithm has its way.
Victoria Turk is a London-based writer
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