/en/ - General

what's slang

>>5349 I agree. It's especially dumb when my brother uses internet slang when talking to me in real life.

>>5349 I've dropped out of the mainstream Internet culture like all the slang and memes a year or so ago. I still catch myself using words like "based" once in a while, but I try to put them into something proper instead. As far as "memes" go, they're almost all unfunny trash now and a total waste of time to make with the exception of certain redrawing trends or outfit trends, which are fun admittedly.

>>5370 Memes used to have a soul. Nowadays they feel too repetitive and template-y. The recycling of jokes and especially people acting like they're sth new and quality is what annoys me personally. Today's "dark humor" is pretty much just repeating the same few 9/11, racism, sexism, etc jokes over and over. Similar reason why new slang is pretty trash, as it's entire phrases that get slanged, not just words. So the result is unoriginal, predictable, pointless convos.

>>5349 Modern net slang is pretty awful. >>5371 It feels like everyone is larping. Meme culture is recursive so maybe it was always going to end up repetitive?

>>5372 I suppose larping is the result of growing up in such an irony-heavy environment. As for recursiveness leading to repetitiveness, you're probably right. Though repetitiveness might not be such an issue if the memes still had a soul. It's like re-reading LOTR vs some cookie-cutter fairy tale whose sole purpose is to make money (or in the case of memes, get clout).

>>5373 wow you're even here. pleased to meet you sir (no)

>>5370 >based I hate this "word" in particular because of its origin, which is a ("dark demon") rapper bragging about his drug addiction and self-centeredness. Another one I hate in particular (although to a lesser extent) that's been around for longer is "kek" because it's Korean, and as a fan of Japan I am obliged to be anti-Korean (other than for Blue Archive).

>>5372 The more I think about it, the idea of a meme just doesn't appeal to me at all. The basic definition of a meme is just some "idea" that gets spread through imitation and in this sense it can be anything. Because large internet forums are people just impersonally exchanging abstract ideas, a meme spreads faster than it would through word-of-mouth communication. When the content of a meme is frivolous or intended as a joke, I don't really care. When it is political (which it almost always is now), it becomes a great way of spreading propaganda and replacing real speech. I find this way of communicating contemptible in the same way that I find using slang words as a substitute for thought out discussion contemptible. I just want to speak in plain language.

All language is recursive. Yet you can generate a seemingly infinite number of original sentences from just a few basic building blocks and grammar. Recursion doesn't inherently lead to stale meaningless repetition. The same holds true for memes and internet slang. But why the hell is it so soulless? There are some unusual features of modern mainstream internet slang and memes. 1. 4chan mimicry where everyone seems to be doing their best to come off as "based" and mimic a stereotypical 4channer which never existed while not being too outrageous. Everyone is doing their best to be a nihilistic asshole but only to certain groups of people. 2. Memes quickly loose all meaning and become empty signifiers e.g. feelsguy/wojak once had a bunch of meanings attached to it but now its just a generic character people prop up everywhere from YouTube thumbnails to political propaganda. Its a soulless empty signifier because the visual image no longer refers to a meaning anymore. Then you realize that we're surrounded by these empty zombie signifiers. There are dozens of them and they are everywhere. Our environment is saturated with dead zombie content. 3. Modern internet memes are very tribal and involve shitting on others. This has always kinda existed but now it seems every meme is about flinging shit on some online group. Memes aren't really in jokes or for the lulz anymore but hate and rage. They are designed to either provoke feelings of rage or rally your own group by stroking their hatred of people they see as others. A lot of online posting always links back to some group the poster hates. Its annoying as fuck. Humans are social animals and language is the glue that holds us together. Slang was an identity marker for subcultures. Every group had their own unique way of talking and not knowing it was a sign you were either an outsider, a poseur, or a n00b. But internet slang isn't like that. Its just regular everyday speech now except its pretending to be subcultural. This is probably just a continuation of corpos repackaging youth culture and trying to sell it back to people. Its all algorithmically dictated and not organic at all. Take "Gen Z" or "Millennial" these are just a marketing labels but people obsess over these made up buzzwords and see it as something important to their personal identity. All memes are forced memes but now big tech really can force slang, memes, ideas etc onto us through algorithmic spoon feeding and sheer dominance. Society is fucked. Its all one big hyperreal spectacle.

>>5370 trynna grow out of that shit so hard wired into me when everyone around uses those words, and based is a word that is difficult because its like using the word kosher or halal. but usually said by people that need to give others approval. >>5349 newer slangs probably will have their funni streak, like how thicc and those used to be obscure words only stayed on image boards then normies ran that word dry.

>>5554 damn your post really gave me whiplash you should read more, maybe you wouldn’t sound so….odd.

I think a lot of people don't consider the words they learn and what places they fit into. I'm a young person that grew up with social media very heavily embedded in my life. Throughout school, if I knew something was slang, I would think of it as such and only use it with friends. If I was talking to a stranger, a teacher, parents, etc. I would not use those words as I didn't know if they would be familiar or understand. But I see many people don't do this, they assume everyone has their same level of knowledge. I don't know if theres a better term but I think of it similar to code-switching. You need to know your environment and who you are interacting with to act appropriately. There is nothing inherently bad with using modern slang, but it needs to be thought of as such. Having now graduated some time ago, my main communications in real life are at work with customers or with coworkers much older than myself. And when online unless im in a specific group I try to keep a baseline of normalcy when chatting. Forgive me if this sounds like the ramblings of a half asleep person, as that is what they are.