a new dictionary lol

Calen Chung

Language of the 2010s far surpassed what it was in the 2000s. The use of acronyms no longer became limited to teenage girls with pink flip phones. With texting and posting to social media becoming an integral part of our daily routines, how we express ourselves online has become synonymous with how we express ourselves irl. Casual conversations pieced together with improper spellings and shorthand acronyms create a personal voice of the internet. However, you may not want to email your boss saying “LOL i think imma be late haha sry dude,” we haven’t completely let go of our proper writing standards–yet.

The vocabulary that you need to know to get through a week online probably won’t be found in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. However, you may find words like binge-watch. A definition championed by one of the many online services dominating how we consume content. These companies hold an essential role in shaping the new terms to hit the linguistic market. Words created within these platforms and words that result as a product of their service end up within our everyday vocab. It may seem a little daunting with something that seems like a never-ending scroll of terms to learn, but no worries, here are a couple of words to get you started on catching up on the last decade.

“yeet(ing)(ed)”
getting out of there
“yeet”
can’t bother to give a full response
“YEEEEEET”
very excited
“spotify”
the shift in music’s commodity structure
“fire”
really good
“LOL”
I am laughing (internally or externally)
“literally”
not actually literally
“I literally can’t”
I literally can’t, but I actually can
“yo”
hey but chill
“postmates”
the person you paid so could be lazy
“netflix”
the shift in entertainment’s commodity structure
“hehe”
mischief
“amazon” (online)
a place to buy resources
“amazon” (rainforest)
a place to buy resources
“omg”
audible gasp
“friended”
formally requested permission to stalk your social media
Connections
“ASMR” and “satisfying” quickly rose to vocabulary relevancy in the 2010s thanks to social media. Trudy’s article explores the tactilility of these words and gives them a visual meaning.
The times are no longer confined to a written or spoken language but expanded to visual with the birth of constant casual photography. Aira’s article exposes this new wave specifically within the food space on instagram.