What The Sigma Is Algospeak?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Hey, this is Flora Lichtman, and you’re listening to Science Friday.

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Today in the show, decoding lingua interneta.

ADAM ALEKSIC: So I have a fast-paced, high-stressed influencer accent, and then there’s people– you know, the standard lifestyle influencer. Like, hey guys, welcome to Science Friday. But that’s also good for attention.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I feel like you’re trolling me. On my skibidi, we have a linguistic rizzler here to tell us why my diction is giving Ohio. If that’s brain rot to you, my next guest argues it’s actually the future of language. Today, we’re talking about algospeak– how algorithms are shaping the way that we write and talk and think– with Adam Aleksic. He’s a TikToker, a language nerd, and the author of Algospeak– How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language, and he’s based in New York. Adam, welcome to Science Friday.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Hi, Flora. You might be the first person to ever call me a linguistic rizzler.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I’m going to take that as a compliment, but you can tell me why it’s actually a diss. Did I use it correctly?

ADAM ALEKSIC: I guess younger people wouldn’t quite say that, because–

FLORA LICHTMAN: We’re already here. We’re one second–

ADAM ALEKSIC: It’s leaning into cringe humor, I suppose.

FLORA LICHTMAN: We’re one second into this interview. OK. Tell me, how would the young kids, how would the young folks use it?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Well, there’s always a layer of irony, right? So The Rizzler is a character on TikTok. And it’s funny, because everybody knows that the word “rizz,” which started trending in 2023– it’s now sort of meta-ironically poking fun at itself as a word.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Well, meta-ironically is exactly how I meant it. How do you define algospeak?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah. So I start with the example of “unalive.” And you can’t say “kill” on TikTok. Your videos will be suppressed. So instead, many creators have chosen to say “unalive” instead, especially in mental health spaces, where they need ways to share their stories and spread resources.

And this has started to really affect our speech offline. There’s kids in middle schools now writing essays about Hamlet contemplating unaliving himself. And that’s an example of algospeak under the classic definition of speech meant to evade algorithmic censorship. But in the book, I argue that algospeak is, in fact, much more than that. Algorithms are an underlying infrastructure, a medium shaping how all of our language evolves online right now.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Give me some other examples. If it’s not just a way to get around community standards or censorship, what’s another example of this wider definition of algospeak?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Sure. Take the word “rizz,” which was trending on the algorithm in the summer of 2023, and then was remixed in October 2023 through “The Rizzler” song, which capitalized on the previous trending value of “rizz.” And this is something that you’ll see a lot online, that if a word is trending, creators will try to tap into that trend, because our job is to stay relevant and figure out what the algorithmic trends are.

So we see that a word is trending, we use the word, and then we perpetuate the trend further into virality. And now, humans have always had memes and fads and trends. That’s not new. But the fact that the algorithm compounds natural human behaviors is new, the fact that it creates these communities that feel like they have a space to use their words and then opens up those communities enough to allow those words to spread. All of that is still algospeak.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I’m going to sound old again. You talk fast.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Sorry. Maybe it’s the social media training. No, you’re supposed to talk faster online. It’s good for getting attention, because the slower you talk, the easier it is to scroll away. The more dead air there is, the easier it is to scroll away. So maybe I’ve conditioned myself into just speaking fast in general, even in contexts when I shouldn’t be.

And this is a theme that I came across, that there are influencer accents that are adopted to different styles. So I have a fast-paced, high-stressed influencer accent. And then there’s people– you know, the standard lifestyle influencer. Like, hey, guys. Welcome to Science Friday. But that’s also good for attention.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I feel like you’re trolling me.

ADAM ALEKSIC: I’m not. That’s a standard lifestyle influencer accent. And it’s good, because the uptalk keeps you hanging on every word, wondering what’s coming next. Meanwhile, it also does that function of filling dead air, which is so bad for the algorithm.

FLORA LICHTMAN: OK. How is algospeak different from how new language evolved in the past?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Language is the story of how humans use tools to communicate, and the tools sometimes change, which means we communicate in slightly different ways. And every once in a while, there’s an inflection point that completely changes how we talk to each other. Right?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Like the printing press, for example?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah. Printing press completely revolutionized things. Well, one, it allowed for more standardized writing. At the same time, it created new gatekeepers to who can use language. At the same time, it did democratize some aspects of language. Now we have vernacular printing.

Internet sort of has the same function. There’s new gatekeepers. These are the websites that have power over who can write on these forums. But at the same time, way more informal speech is allowed to replicate online. I think algorithms are yet another inflection point. It’s also a story of power– who gets to control how language is reproduced.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Are new words popping up faster because of algorithms?

ADAM ALEKSIC: I think that’s the main change that I can definitely say is happening, because a lot of this is just old human cycles happening again and again. “Unalive,” for example, is just a euphemism for death, and we’ve been euphemizing death forever. That’s why we say things like “deceased” or “passed away.” However, the fact that the algorithm is censoring the word for death means that humans are forced to come up with new words. And we see this across a lot of different sensitive topics, because TikTok community guidelines are– not only are they strict, but creators tend to over-correct and come up with algorithmic substitutions even when they don’t have to. And what you see is the algorithm becomes what linguists call a productive force, something that produces more language change.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I mean, if algorithms are shaping our language, does that just mean that big tech companies’ tastes and standards are driving the future of language?

ADAM ALEKSIC: I do think, unfortunately, that is something we should be paying attention to. At the end of the day, when your middle-schooler uses the word “rizz,” or “skibidi,” or something like that, they’re not using it because these big tech companies are pushing trends to commodify our attention. They’re using it because it’s funny and it’s a way to relate to other middle-schoolers.

And that’s the theme I keep coming across, that the language itself is not harmful, but it is sort of an indicator, maybe a bellwether or canary in the coal mine, of what’s happening with language as a whole. We have language revolving and evolving around what grabs our attention online, and unfortunately, that’s because these platforms have baked-in attention-grabbing incentives for creators to replicate. They operate under the logic of, let’s commodify everybody’s attention so that we can sell them more ads and sell their data, and language is sort of evolving that way as a result.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Do you think that’s different than before? I mean, did language always evolve to grab our attention?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Absolutely. We’ve always needed attention to tell stories. Let’s say you’re a teacher and you need to educate your students. You can’t do that if you don’t have their attention, so you have to make it a little bit fun for them. But now I, as an educational creator online, I feel like that process is compounded and amplified. And I’m still trying to teach people things, but I can’t even categorize it as education. It has to be edutainment. I have to package it in memes and funny things. Otherwise, the message simply won’t spread, because the algorithm won’t push it. So this natural human tendency is we squeeze it to make something even more extreme than otherwise would have existed by itself.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Are words dying faster too, now?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Well, words have always been memes, and they die out when meme lifespans die out. I think online, the way it pushes memes rapidly, you do see some words fade in popularity a little bit faster. As soon as your grandmother starts saying “skibidi,” it’s no longer fun for you to say “skibidi,” right? And your grandmother learned the word “skibidi” so quickly because of our ongoing fascination with the slang of younger generations and the availability of this information, and how algorithms push all of that at the same time.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Well, I wanted to ask you about that. I mean, if I say I have the one and only real 24-karat gold Labubu because I’m trying to fit in, am I already outing myself as uncool?

ADAM ALEKSIC: No, that’s surprisingly up to date on current memes, at least of recording. No, yeah. There’s this trend right now where people are repeating consumerist language. The “rizz” and “skibidi” stuff was the original form of brain rot. It’s more than something that rots your brain. It’s a meme aesthetic online. And brain rot is this nonsensical repetition of trending slang.

So if I say “skibidi rizz,” it’s funny because it doesn’t really mean anything, right? But right now, if I say, “Labubu 24-karat Dubai chocolate matcha whatever,” that’s funny, because it’s repeating this over-consumptive language, kind of critiquing our consumer behaviors and the oversaturation of things that are being advertised to us online. Absolutely, that’s a form of brain rot as well– brain rot, the meme genre.

FLORA LICHTMAN: A Labubu, for our listeners, is a– how would you describe it? A small stuffed animal?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah, it’s a creepy-looking stuffed animal.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What makes a word take off? Like, is there a secret sauce?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah. Words usually evolve under the conduits of what people find is funny or cool. And this has always been true. I think it’s exaggerated online. The fact that you could sub in anything to mean death, but “unalive” is just kind of a funny word. It comes from a Roblox meme in 2018, which comes from an Ultimate Spider-Man meme. A lot of these meme words have previous origins.

“Skibidi” comes from– it was funny because it referred to a fictional toilet on a YouTube short series. “Rizz” was funny, because it comes– It was also kind of cool, because it came from this popular streamer, Kai Cenat. And in the same way, you’ll have a lot of words come from African-American English, which is seen as cool by some people and seen as funny by other people, and both of those conduits push their words into the mainstream– like, a lot of Gen Z slang currently comes from Black Americans.

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FLORA LICHTMAN: We have to take a break. And when we come back, what does skibidi toilet Labubu all really mean?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Definitely there is maybe a return to, like, Dadaist aesthetics. I think each generation has– their language evolved through an aesthetic framework of what’s funny or interesting.

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FLORA LICHTMAN: You know, one thing that I love about this is that it feels intentionally absurd. Like, absurdity is on 11 with some of these words. A, would you agree with that? And B, do you think that’s different from slang of yore?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Definitely there is maybe a return to, like, Dadaist aesthetics. I think each generation has– their language evolved through an aesthetic framework of what’s funny or interesting. Millennial humor is parodied as trying too hard to be quirky or something, but that’s just their aesthetic framework, and it’s funny for them. And–

FLORA LICHTMAN: It’s funny for us.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Gen Z’s aesthetic framework is maybe there’s a layer of nonchalance for sure, and there’s a layer of attached, absurd irony. And language evolves through these frameworks for how we perceive comedy.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Do you think that that tells us something about the world that Gen Z grew up in, this attachment to irony and absurdity?

ADAM ALEKSIC: I definitely think so. I think, again, the words themselves aren’t bad. There’s nothing about a word that will rot your brain. But they are indicators of cultural shifts. They are literal examples we can point to and say, oh, this is how an idea evolved. This word is here because this concept is important to us. And you have these words relating to, say, depressive or detached language. It’s called doomslang. You can say, I just want to lay down in bed and bed rot, or, I’m doomscrolling. Stuff like that. This negative language reflects this attitude we might have right now to our current reality.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What else do you think it says? I mean, what does the absurdity say about the world that we live in, or this fixating on consumer culture and making fun of it?

ADAM ALEKSIC: I think that these algorithms are pushing more consumer labels and language on us than we’ve ever had before. We’ve had TV advertising, but you could just turn off the TV. Now, even when you’re not on the algorithm and you’re in a bar hanging out with some friends, the song playing on the radio is a song that was popularized through TikTok, and now that’s affecting your collective headspace.

And you walk down the street and you see these Dubai Labubus. And all that kind of affects our headspace, and we feel this pervasive feeling of being watched and being sold to, and it’s exhausting, and that’s why we turn to absurdism. And absurdism comes in times of high social change. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Dadaism and that kind of stuff was right around World War I.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What demographic, age-wise, is on the cutting edge of algospeak?

ADAM ALEKSIC: It’s definitely middle-schoolers.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Really?

ADAM ALEKSIC: If you’re not tapped into middle-schoolers, you don’t where the actual change is happening. These kids, they’ve always been coming up with new ways to create new identities and differentiate themselves from adults. And in forging this shared identity, they often create new language, right? And that’s always been a thing.

It’s always been, oh, the kids are talking different these days. We’ve always had that attitude. The algorithm sort of naturally picks up on what middle-schoolers find fascinating, and then we compound that through, let’s say, cringe culture. So the fact that rise was actually trending among middle-schoolers and then cringe creators start making humorous, parodying videos of the word “rizz,” but they actually pushed the word “rizz” more, and then more middle-schoolers identify with it– usually, the changes you can see are in the middle schools.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Because they are the most online?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Not necessarily the most online. I think they’re probably as online as older Gen Z people, or something. It’s just the most impressionable, and they have the least crystallized idea of what language is. They’re the most flexible to language change.

FLORA LICHTMAN: How do emojis fit into all this?

ADAM ALEKSIC: Emojis are just words. I mean, words evolved from the increasing abstraction of pictographs, and now we have pictographs depicting an idea, which is also what a word is. But just like words, they undergo semantic change. So I talk in the book about how you think, oh, an emoji is just this symbol, but in fact, it has an imbued meaning. There’s ironic emojis. The laughing crying emoji, for example, is no longer cool for indicating laughter, so people turn to the crying emoji. And then that died out, because these words have trends, right?

FLORA LICHTMAN: And then so they change their meaning, too.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Right. And then we move to the skull emoji, which now doesn’t mean dead. It means, like, I’m dead from laughing.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Do you feel like people take algospeak or Gen Z or Gen Alpha language seriously enough?

ADAM ALEKSIC: No, I definitely don’t think so. I mean, we all know it’s a little bit funny when I come on here and I talk about “skibidi” and “rizz,” because it’s funny to talk about pop culture in a serious academic lens. At the same time, pop culture always becomes history, and then once it becomes history, now it’s, OK, it’s legitimized to look at it and talk about it seriously. I think we should be talking about it now, because we’re in this massive upheaval societally, and the words are an indicator for what’s going on with algorithms.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Say more about that.

ADAM ALEKSIC: The fact that things are happening faster, the fact that these algorithms are dominating our attention, and that they’re pretty much the only thing driving language change right now. If we want to look at culture, we have to look at the algorithms.

FLORA LICHTMAN: OK. Before we go, I want to do a word speed round with you. So we asked our listeners to submit words they want to see go viral. And I just want your take. Any free association is game. Our first one is a caller from Rancho Cordova, California.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Amazing.

AUDIENCE: The word I made up, it’s “underthink.” It is the opposite of “overthink.” And “underthink” is when you should take more time, but you’re not taking the time to do the critical thinking, the research, the fact-checking, and it’s going to have a bad turnout.

FLORA LICHTMAN: So “underthink,” opposite of “overthink.”

ADAM ALEKSIC: Yeah. We have unpaired words in English. So the fact that there’s a “nonchalant,” but not a “chalant,” and now it’s a social media trend to start saying “chalant,” because it’s funny. But we have a lot of words sort of like that. “Ruthless,” but not “ruthful.” Why hasn’t there really been an “underthink?” I feel like there should have been. It feels so obvious that I’m surprised there wasn’t one, so it definitely makes sense. It’s just it’s a matter of whether people are actually going to adopt a word like that.

FLORA LICHTMAN: OK, here’s the next one.

AUDIENCE: Hey, this is Lee from Ridgway, Colorado. This era of remote work has me often saying that I’m sporting a “work mullet.” That’s a business-on-top top and pajama pants or party on the bottom.

ADAM ALEKSIC: [CHUCKLES] I love that. It’s applying one semantic domain to another. That’s how metaphor works. And it’s just a funny way of expressing an important thing. And there’s some underlying thing there as well– like, the tension between personal life and work life. And we see that from shows like Severance to all these TikToks. But I really like that concept.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Here’s the last one.

AUDIENCE: Hey, this is Allen out of Charleston, South Carolina, and my internet word or phrase or meme that I’d like to see take off into the mainstream, thanks to Jay Renshaw– do it, lady. You can use it in any context, positive or negative, male or female. Do it, lady.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Well, I have news for you. That’s actually being used in the middle schools. I follow this one account. There’s a few accounts you have to follow if you really want to be tapped into middle school culture. One of them is a TikToker named Mr. Lindsay. He’s a middle school teacher, and he often covers what middle-schoolers are saying that particular week. And they are, in fact, saying “do it, lady” right now, from that internet meme. So maybe there’s some real thing happening there. I love that.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Allen. Nice job, Allen. Although now that we’ve mentioned it on the show, we’ve probably killed its chances for going viral. It’s like your grandma saying “skibidi.” Thank you, Adam, for being on the show with us today. Adam Aleksic is the author of Algospeak– How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language. Thanks for coming on.

ADAM ALEKSIC: Thank you so much.

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