In high school, me and my fellow outcast friends made our own slang. The idea what to make it so mind numbingly cringe that even using our slang to mock us would be social suicide for the cool kids. I don’t know if that last part worked, but we were pretty damn cringe.
I’d give examples, but it’s all in Norwegian, and incredibly cringe.
I remember "my bad" annoyed me far more than it should have. Same with the use of 'a minute' to mean a long period of time (e.g. "I haven't seen xxxx in a minute!"). Then again, I had a stepfather who would stop me mid-sentence to berate and correct my grammar so that may have had something to do with it.
I genuinely don’t care what the slang is today. It’s their right to use whatever slang works for them.
What I do care about is when my Gen-Z friends/Peers use that slang at or around me. Then; all I ask is that they have the infinite patience needed to put up with me going “WAT?” every once in a while as my slightly slower millennial brain fails to decode that slang fast enough to stop myself from asking “what the hell do they mean exactly?” and enough patience to slow their lingo down and explain what they mean If the message was intended for me.
Your GenX peers wanted the same from you, as did their Boomer peers from them. One day, those same zoomer friends of yours will be confused and annoyed by their Gen Alpha friends’ slang, and the cycle will continue.
Add comment