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by elicash
41 days ago
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That I, an old person, know what it means suggests that it has already gone from (1) the incel or whatever community usage, to (2) ironic usage by others, and then finally to (3) widespread usage entirely divorced from the original meaning. |
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I’m 42, and definitely don’t feel old yet - at least, my mind doesn’t feel old. My body is beginning to show me what’s it going to be like.
I don’t think my generation is nearly as out of touch with youth and niche culture as our parents were. While there are definitely examples of slang that surprise me and for which I’ve not quite nailed down the colloquial usage, it’s extremely rare that I can’t infer the meaning from context.
For that matter, I’ve adopted some of it where it makes sense. “-maxxing” is handy, and conveys more than “optimize for”; I might say I’m “tokenmaxxing” when I’m talking about intentionally using more costly inference than necessary because I’m not the one paying for it and the time necessary to optimize utilization isn’t worth it to me as a result. Basically implicitly recognizing that what I’m doing is ridiculous when viewed from the outside.
The only slang I can think of that I’ve not fully understood is “type shit”. I get that it usually used as an affirmation of someone else’s statement - but not always. I think its exact semantics are likely still in flux, because I’ve heard it used to mean all kinds of unrelated things depending on tone.
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Thinking about this, I wonder if it’s not a continuation of the same processes that lead to the disappearance of many regional accents. That’s generally accepted to be happening, and caused by the rise of mass media (radio, TV, Internet).
Maybe the Internet (social media in particular) has lumped everyone together in one giant community, and as a result slang no longer has time to solidly meaning in a niche group before reaching the general public.