Across the decades, slang has shifted with location and social norms. These days, it changes so fast from year to year that there’s barely time to catch up, and that can have a real impact on conversations between young adults.
If At Any Point, You’ve Heard Someone Saying That Gen-Alpha is Scary, They Are Correct.Â
Gen Alpha IS scary.
I saw a video last week of a teacher reviewing things their Gen Alpha students had said, and I didn’t understand a single word. They could have had entire conversations around me, someone fluent in English, and I would have been completely lost.
The prospect of that is earth-shattering. I know abbreviations are often used as slang, and sometimes I catch myself using a few, but only to a certain extent, and typically only with my closest friends and family.
The Shock Only Continues
What’s interesting is that the way two people talk to each other wouldn’t normally matter to the wider population. With technology, though, a conversation between two people can be broadcast globally. So it begs the question: does what we say to each other matter more, or less, than before?
IT Depends on Who Cares
Why should we care at all? Wouldn’t it be fair to say that human interaction is simply that, an interaction?
Except it can lead to a slip of the tongue in an academic paper or a professional setting. Something that feels natural to you might look out of place to someone else.
Am I Saying We Should Restrict Language? Absolutely NOT.
I’m a bit of a sailor on the inside when it comes to explicit language. What I don’t do is shorten my speech in ways I find concerning, because it creates a language barrier within a language.
For Entertainment Purposes, It’s Kind of Funny.
It can be quite humorous, until it isn’t. The credibility of a statement can be undermined by the words wedged between the important bits. If I wrote “lol this is outrageous but omg,” the substance behind my thoughts and claims would seem less credible.
And that’s only an abbreviation.
BRACE YOURSELF
My suggestion in the face of this predicament is to brace yourself, not only for the jokes from our elders about how they probably felt the same about us, but for how inevitable all of this is. Sometimes endurance and acceptance are the only answer.