{"id":22199,"date":"2025-07-19T20:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T20:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/22199\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T20:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T20:11:10","slug":"algospeak-shows-how-much-social-media-is-changing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/22199\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Algospeak\u2019 shows how much social media is changing us"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RACHEL S. HUNT<\/p>\n

How much has social media<\/a> changed the way we talk and behave?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book \u201cAlgospeak.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you already know what words<\/a> like \u201cyeet,\u201d \u201crizz,\u201d \u201cbrainrot\u201d or \u201cblackpilled\u201d mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic\u2019s analysis reaffirms how this language came about and why it continues to proliferate. For those unfamiliar, it acts as an accessible entry point into social media slang and its evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgospeak\u201d touches on a wide array of topics, including in-groups and out-groups, censorship, language appropriation, extremism online, microtrends, clickbait and generational divides. The chapters build on each other with a textbook-level attention to vocabulary.<\/p>\n

This book serves as a sobering reality check on how social media is affecting not just our speech, but our entire identities.<\/p>\n

This book cover image released by Knopf shows \u201cAlgospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language\u201d by Adam Aleksic. (Knopf via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media creates new identities in order to commodify them,\u201d Aleksic writes in a chapter about microtrends and micro-labels. \u201cYour decisions are now curated for you under the guise of personalization, while in reality they\u2019re engineered to make platforms as much money as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a self-proclaimed \u201cetymology nerd,\u201d Aleksic leans heavily into his experience as a content creator, providing a crash course into social media history and how to game the ever-changing and opaque \u201calgorithm.\u201d His tone is academic, yet approachable, and he\u2019s bold but pragmatic in his assertions, exploring counterarguments sufficiently.<\/p>\n

He identifies the transient nature of language and the algorithm immediately, since the cultural references in \u201cAlgospeak\u201d risk expiring quickly as trends change and social media platforms shift \u2014 but that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The algorithm\u2019 is here to stay. This is why I think it\u2019s absolutely worth talking about even the most fleeting words,\u201d Aleksic writes.<\/p>\n

Aleksic\u2019s writing feels personable and knowledgeable as he translates his online presence offline, and in doing so, demonstrates his own claims about parasocial relationships and owning one\u2019s audience. Keeping up with the algorithmic cycle is portrayed as exhausting, but as a necessary evil for influencers supporting their livelihoods through social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgospeak\u201d is a fascinating blend of etymology, psychology, cultural analysis and first-person perspective. The book acts as both a snapshot of our current, social media-imbued society and as an intellectual foundation for language developments to come.<\/p>\n

Aleksic leaves his reader with questions about the threats and opportunities that stem from social media developments, but undeniably one principle is true: social media has breached containment and is influencing not only the way we talk, but the way we live.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgorithms are the culprits, influencers are the accomplices, language is the weapon, and you, dear reader, are the victim,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By RACHEL S. HUNT How much has social media changed the way we talk and behave? That\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[9950,20057,223,88,20058],"class_list":{"0":"post-22199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-adam-aleksic","9":"tag-algospeak-review","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-etymologynerd-book"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}