How the English language has changed in 2024

Each year, new words find their way into the general American English lexicon. Even if we try to avoid them, these new slang terms are spreading and being used all around us.Related video above: RETRO SLANG: Do you know what a yuppie is?While it used to be that language mostly evolved through watching TV programs, listening to the radio and slowly adopting terms through conversation, now language is evolving through the reception of viral, one-minute videos. And as more and more people spend time on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, more and more videos are gaining levels of popularity that used to be rare to achieve. Through this increased interaction with others, language is changing faster than many can track.The impact of social media on languageSocial media has transformed much of how we communicate in 2024. According to Statista, 5.22 billion people (63.8% of the world’s population) use social media. That’s up from 4.7 billion in 2020 and a far cry from the 2.79 billion in 2014, according to statistics gathered by Our World in Data.While social media used to be a niche method of communication, it is now a fully integrated function in everyday life — and its effect on how we interact with each other is vast.“Unlike traditional media, where language change often trickled down from elite cultural centers, social media allows users from diverse backgrounds to participate in and influence linguistic trends,” Tony Dembe wrote in “The Impact of Social Media on Language Evolution.”These diverse backgrounds can be based on age, location, hobbies or which social media platform one regularly uses. For instance, the term “skibidi” was popularized in large part by younger consumers who watched the immensely popular YouTube series “Skibidi Toilet.”“Rizz,” on the other hand, gained traction through its use by viewers of the Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who Dictionary.com credits with inventing the term.The trending word “demure” is attributed to Jools Lebron, who redefined the term in a series of viral TikTok videos this year.While social media is a common thread in the rise of popularity for these terms, the specific platforms they originated from vary. But with the increased use of social media, these consumer subdivisions can easily overlap through just the click of a button, providing a quick and effective way for slang to spread and influence the general population.New language adopted in 2024While some may have been able to avoid adopting the new terms popping up around the country, their usage is becoming more normalized as the world attempts to keep up with how fast these words are being rolled out.The redefined “demure” hit new heights of fame after being popularized by Lebron this summer, becoming Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year with only a few months to achieve the title. “Demure” saw a “1200% increase in usage in digital web media alone” after Lebron redefined the term from its original meaning — reserved or modest — to refined and sophisticated. While oftentimes these new words and phrases can remain niche or specific to certain communities, “demure” was able to quickly break out and enter the general English lexicon.The term has been used by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Penn Badgley. It was also employed by the White House in a post on X regarding the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to cancel many people’s student debt. Its popularity even sent Lebron to the big screen, opening the door for the TikTok star to make an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The term’s expansive reach has certainly made its new definition widely known, if not cemented in history.Similarly, the term “unalive” has grown out of its original corner of the internet. The term is a common example of “algospeak,” which refers to words and phrases used to avoid the censorship levied on some social media platforms. “Unalive” became code for “dead” and was often used in discussions of homicides, mental health and suicide.While the word could have stayed platform-specific, depending on which moderation systems flagged the more standard terms referring to death, “unalive” quickly became used in general conversations. Even more surprising, the term created controversy when “unalive” was reportedly used on a placard describing Kurt Cobain’s death at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. The placard read, “Kurt Cobain un-alived himself at 27,” a phrasing that many found disrespectful of the former lead singer of Nirvana. While the museum seemingly revised the placard to use the phrase “died by suicide” instead of the slang term, according to a report by CNN, the initial use of the term in such a formal setting may suggest that social media-based slang is in the process of being less stigmatized as it’s adopted by the general population. However, there is clearly still a long road ahead before it is officially welcomed into the English language.The social media generationsFor insight into how language is changing and how it may evolve in the future, look no further than Generation Alpha.While Generation Z grew up alongside the evolution of the internet, smartphones and the beginning of social media, Gen Alpha is growing up with more advanced social media systems already integrated into regular life.“I think that their generation right now is social media natives,” Payton Miller, a member of Gen Z and an eighth-grade English teacher, said. “Because I’m noticing a difference between the 12th graders that I had, who would use words that I recognized from social media and especially TikTok, but it seemed to not come as naturally to them. But these kids are 13. … They consistently use social media as, like, a way to communicate and have for a really long time.”Because of their exposure to social media, you may have heard many members of Gen Alpha use terms that used to be alien to most English speakers, such as “skibidi,” “glizzy” and “sigma.”While some of these new terms seem to have no meaning, such as “skibidi” and “sigma,” which appear to have shed their original definitions, others are simply replacements for words or concepts that are already known.“Every 15 seconds, something that already exists has a new name,” Miller explained. “Every day, there are new things happening, and because kids are sponges, they can change with it.”With social media’s tendency to promote quick, short-form content, videos using new slang terms are being consumed at higher rates, causing their audiences to learn new words faster than with traditional media like TV and theater.And this audience is, in large part, composed of Gen Alpha. According to the Pew Research Center, across the platforms of YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, “one-third of teens use at least one of these sites almost constantly.”“Now, more than before, there is, like, such a quick evolution of language, and it happens almost instantaneously,” Miller added. “And language has always been, like, a living, breathing thing, but it happens so fast now.”With this common consumption of social media, a sense of community appears to have grown out of the shared understanding of these new terms — and with it, a clear distinction between those in the know and those who are not.“They all seem to, like, have it instantly. If one kid is saying something, they all know what that person means, even if I’ve never heard it in my life,” Miller said. “They can say stuff that to me, as, like, a Gen Z person, is completely, like, incomprehensible. But they know what they’re talking about.”This is similar to when Gen Z and Millennials used terms and phrases like “OK, boomer” to draw a line between them and the baby boomer generation. Language can be a unifying tool as much as it can provide a sense of independence from those who can’t understand it. In this context, not much has changed.But the quantity of new words entering circulation and the speed with which they spread can be confounding, and, unsurprisingly, the slang is being met with resistance. Social media’s influence on language is often attributed to the newly popularized term “brain rot,” Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year, which commonly refers to the negative impacts of overconsuming online content. Through this lens, many believe language is deteriorating, being too easily influenced by unintelligent sources.It’s hard to determine how language will continue to evolve from here as social media continues to grow and technology advances, but for now, it seems keeping up with its changes is difficult to manage without a constant online presence or a personal Gen Alpha tutor.The constant we can rely on, however, is that language will always be subject to the creativity of those who use it, even if it can be difficult to keep up with.If you want to do more research, here are some new, redefined or resurfacing words and phrases that you can look further into:BrainrotBrat Fanum taxFeltGlazingGlizzy GyattI’m going to crash outMewingMoggingOhioRizzStood on businessYapping