{"id":19049,"date":"2019-12-24T05:54:40","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T05:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=19049"},"modified":"2019-12-25T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-25T14:55:14","slug":"3-internet-language-trends-from-2019-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/3-internet-language-trends-from-2019-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"3 internet language trends from 2019, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zachary Jaggers<\/a>, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em> and Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk<\/a>, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Social media has created an entirely new linguistic ecosystem, with new words, phrases and features for expressing ourselves cropping up all the time.<\/p>\n

Last year, internet language expert Gretchen McCulloch \u2013 whose best-selling book \u201cBecause Internet<\/a>\u201d is its own noteworthy language event of 2019 \u2013 identified multiple terms<\/a> that have become popular among Gen Z users in recent years. They included \u201cfinsta<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a social media user\u2019s second account with a more private, selective audience \u2013 and the interjection \u201cyeet<\/a>,\u201d which is meant to convey surprise or approval.<\/p>\n

As the year winds down, we\u2019ll walk you through some other recent trends to get you up to speed before you\u2019re inevitably barraged with new ones in 2020.<\/p>\n

1. From drag queens to VSCO girls<\/h2>\n

Two new language features \u2013 \u201csksksk\u201d and \u201cand I oop\u201d \u2013 are often talked about together. That\u2019s because VSCO girls<\/a> \u2013 largely white, teenage, middle class girls who promote a certain style and aesthetic on social media \u2013 have popularized their use<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first, \u201csksksk,\u201d is a popular keysmash<\/a>, representing someone furiously hitting the \u201cS\u201d and \u201cK\u201d keys back and forth.<\/p>\n

It can mean laughter, excitement or nervousness. As Buzzfeed explained<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s sort of like saying \u2018I can\u2019t even\u2019 as if it were still 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What helped it catch on? The two keys are spaced fairly far apart on mobile devices with a more crowded keyboard layout, so they\u2019re easier to smash back and forth with each thumb. And it\u2019s more pronounceable than a traditional keysmash \u2013 \u201cas;ldfkjls\u201d \u2013 so it can be said out loud. However, this out-loud pronunciation is often used for mockery<\/a> \u2013 so use it carefully.<\/p>\n

The next, \u201cand I oop,\u201d comes from a video that went viral in 2019<\/a>. In it, drag queen Jasmine Masters \u2013 a competitor on \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d \u2013 interjects an \u201coop!\u201d mid-sentence, after \u201cand I\u2026\u201d She explained that the interjection occurred because she\u2019d painfully hit her testicles.<\/p>\n

The phrase became widely used in a similar fashion: to acknowledge \u2013 and lighten the mood after \u2013 an embarrassing or jarring situation.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Neither \u201csksksk\u201d nor \u201cand I oop\u201d was born in 2019. \u201csksksk\u201d has been around since at least 2014<\/a>, while Masters\u2019 video clip that \u201cand I oop\u201d originates from first streamed in 2015.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s how language trends proceed. They aren\u2019t widespread and popular immediately.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of language innovations, these two can trace their origins to queer people of color<\/a> and Black English<\/a>. So there\u2019s an element of appropriation<\/a>. As they become more widely used \u2013 and associated with speakers like VSCO girls \u2013 their origins are forgotten.<\/p>\n

2. A generational eye-roll<\/h2>\n

\u201cOK Boomer\u201d might be the most discussed and debated 2019 language trend. There\u2019s a lot under the hood of this phrase<\/a>, which is a signpost for intergeneration sociopolitical tension.<\/p>\n

It gained traction through the \u201cOK Boomer\u201d song<\/a>, recorded by Peter Kuli & Jedwill, that TikTok users started including in their videos<\/a>. It then spread as a hashtag on social media platforms like Twitter.<\/p>\n

Vox does a good job distilling the meaning of the phrase<\/a>: It\u2019s intended to convey \u201cthe perceived irony that while Boomers nitpick and judge younger generations for their specific choices, it\u2019s the Boomers\u2019 own choices that created the bleak socioeconomic landscape that Millennials and Gen Z currently face.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It can be deployed simultaneously as a prod \u2013 for Boomers to think about the political tension and their role in it \u2013 and as a deflection, stopping the conversation to indicate \u201cYou already have all the power.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Other times, it\u2019s simply used derisively to indicate that someone is out of touch with technology, pop culture or current events.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

3. yOu\u2019Re TyPiNg AlL wRoNg!<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ll often see people use all caps for emphasis.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But recently, people have started using alternating capital letters to express a different kind of intonation: mockery or exasperation.<\/p>\n

While you might argue, \u201cThat\u2019s technically from 2017,\u201d I might just say \u201cThAt\u2019S tEchNiCaLly FrOm 2017!\u201d back at you.<\/p>\n

Yes, this was mainly popularized a couple of years ago in a SpongeBob SquarePants meme<\/a>. (And it likely originated even earlier<\/a>, assuming an even snobbier tone.)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But this year, it\u2019s broken from its original meme mold. It doesn\u2019t have to include repetition, nor does it need an accompanying SpongeBob image. But it stills signals mockery, outrage or exasperation.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

As we move into 2020 and beyond, we\u2019ll have a sense of which of these trends have stuck around, and which were passing fads. Next year will surely have its own quirky trends that might make you go \u201csksksk.\u201d<\/p>\n

[ Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n

Zachary Jaggers<\/a>, Postdoctoral Scholar of Linguistics, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em> and Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk<\/a>, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zachary Jaggers, University of Oregon and Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk, University of Oregon Social media has created an entirely new linguistic ecosystem, with new words, phrases and features for expressing ourselves cropping up all the time. Last year, internet language expert Gretchen McCulloch \u2013 whose best-selling book \u201cBecause Internet\u201d is its own noteworthy language event of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,36],"tags":[4529,7438,7436,7435,7434,1242,7437,5155,486],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19062,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19049\/revisions\/19062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}