the not-so-secret of American slang is that any “new” word was probably in use by black americans for at least a decade before it became “youth culture.”
100% this. Heck, a lot of “queer slang” originates from the ballroom scene. absolutely love stealing culture from Black people and acting like they invented it.
One interesting outcome of widespread internet access is that you have young and older people mingling on a regular basis outside of the usual hierarchical context (e.g. parent-child, teacher-student, employer-employee). If I were living 30 years ago, there is absolutely no way I would be well-versed in the equivalent of zoomer slang (I guess it’d be Gen X slang?), but since we occupy the same spaces it’s natural for that kind of linguistic exchange to occur. Since it’s only a relatively superficial exchange, I don’t think most of us geezers can appreciate all the underlying complexity to be able to use and comprehend the slang at a “native” level, but it prevents us from being left completely in the dark.
but it prevents us from being left completely in the dark.
There’s some poetry to the fact that out of touch internet people that are still on the internet but can’t or refuse to even try to grasp upcoming slang tend to be aging 4chan edgelords that keep regurgitating appropriated stoner frog cartoons.
I’m pretty old and no longer with it and I understand all five of those well enough.
I was going to say I frequently don’t know what the children are talking about and the most recent of these is like 2 years old.
Bet is about as literal as slang could get
Sus is 5 years old and is again short for a literal word.
The boomers really are dumber than any of us give them credit for.
the not-so-secret of American slang is that any “new” word was probably in use by black americans for at least a decade before it became “youth culture.”
100% this. Heck, a lot of “queer slang” originates from the ballroom scene.
absolutely love stealing culture from Black people and acting like they invented it.
One interesting outcome of widespread internet access is that you have young and older people mingling on a regular basis outside of the usual hierarchical context (e.g. parent-child, teacher-student, employer-employee). If I were living 30 years ago, there is absolutely no way I would be well-versed in the equivalent of zoomer slang (I guess it’d be Gen X slang?), but since we occupy the same spaces it’s natural for that kind of linguistic exchange to occur. Since it’s only a relatively superficial exchange, I don’t think most of us geezers can appreciate all the underlying complexity to be able to use and comprehend the slang at a “native” level, but it prevents us from being left completely in the dark.
There’s some poetry to the fact that out of touch internet people that are still on the internet but can’t or refuse to even try to grasp upcoming slang tend to be aging 4chan edgelords that keep regurgitating appropriated stoner frog cartoons.
We’re on hexbear where there’s enough Youngbloods around to keep us up to date with nouveau novel lingua Americana