Adam Aleksik

Apparently even the stoic Romans were as queasy about death as today's middle schoolers.

But there is a crucial difference between unalive and deceased.

And that's that we only got the word unalive because you can't say kill on TikTok.

They have a mysterious algorithm that removes or suppresses any post that might violate their community guidelines.

So people got around with that with the word onalive.

The middle schoolers don't know this.

They see the word online or hear it from friends and assume it's a word like any other.

And fair enough, you probably didn't know where the word deceased came from, unless you're some kind of etymology nerd.

But decease didn't happen because it was impossible to carve the word morse into an ancient Roman tablet.

We are entering an entirely new era of language change driven by social media algorithms.

As a linguist and content creator, I've been in a unique position to see this happen from the inside.

It's almost paralyzing.

I constantly feel how my own language is being affected and judging from the 40% of you who answered both of my questions, it's beginning to change your language too.

And it's not just new words to avoid algorithmic censorship.

The very structure of social media is changing where words come from, how words get popular, and how quickly those words spread.

I believe some of you might be familiar with this song.

Sticking out your yacht for the Rizzler.

You're so skibbity.

You're so phantom tax.

I just want to be your Sigma.