Before social media I remember people who had entire conversations just quoting tv shows, movies, and commercials. Which shows they quoted was their personality.

I think it is much worse with social media, the content is a lot more niche and the algorithms a lot more addictive.

It's not so much the weird stuff they say, I think that is fairly normal, especially the younger you go. It's the inability to do anything in person without talking constant phone breaks that I find most worrying.

> It's the inability to do anything in person without talking constant phone breaks that I find most worrying.

So weird/eerie to go into an In-N-Out Burger or something, and see a table full of teenagers just sitting there silently scrolling their phones. Feels like we're in an episode of the Twilight Zone sometimes.

Not just teenagers, too. You'll see grown ass adults sitting there, technically together but totally absorbed into their phones.

Everyone gets their own echo chamber now.

I want a TikTok-era Bowling Along examining the impact modern single feed social media has had on group participation in the new generations...

Is that a typo or a proposed title for the sequel.

(Even if it's a typo you should probably claim it as a sub-conscious coinage, since it's quite clever.)

A typo but I am hereby proposing that title for the sequel to Bowling Alone.

I would also add that having this kind of detection superpower probably requires the observer to be a social media addict too (low-key).

Well, it’s a pretty obvious tell when they are glued to their phone like a fly on shit.

Do you have examples of what weird stuff they would say? Im having a hard time imagining what you mean exactly.

if i hear 'aura farming' or 'xxx-maxing' one more time I might punch someone.

funny that, I read ZIRP and FAANG this FAANG that, zero interests cause this, cause that, for YEARS here. It's not that different if you can compare, all lead by bots and affected masses.

I'm sorry to break it to you but this isn't social media, it's you getting old.

Most language is invented by children and most of what they invent dies pretty quickly. You transition from not noticing it's new because you weren't alive before to keeping up to falling behind to getting annoyed.

rizz no cap sus swag YOLO such wow pwned that's what she said fo shizzle crunk bling talk to the hand as if crunk homeskillet not! take a chill pill grody gag me with a spoon

Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

And thank you for the "gag me with a spoon" reference. Frank (and Moon) Zappa really hit the nail on the head in Valley Girl (1982). Terrific parody of teen culture/language.

"Pog"

Do you have examples? Asking for a friend.

"Asking for a friend" is a great example.

That’s…not weird, that’s just a turn of phrase that’s in the same category as “that’s what she said”.

dang I just had a mini paradigm shift, what if "that's what she said" was already part of this meme-brainery, I need a serious detox

eventually you lose most of your friends, your neuroplasticity dies down, you stop trying to look cool, fall out of the zeitgeist, and whatever strange things the kids are saying these days becomes annoying because you've stopped participating in culture and it starts to scare and confuse you

I check a lot of those boxes, Abe Simpsons said it best [0], but I get to keep a weather eye on the new lingo through my kids. I remember being a teen and a lot of jibba-jabba that followed, stuff that came up from my people didn't stick, but I can catch up with them and drop a phrase and we all have a laugh. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9578844-i-used-to-be-with-i...

ok boomer

I feel called out as one of them. I definitely overextend in terms of internet references if I'm anxious to try to catch something the other person is interested in. Among many "online" people, memes are basically a form of in-group signaling at this point to indicate you have a similar shape of humor, quirks, shared fandoms, and values (albeit often surface level). I'm reminded of the quote about fandoms by Roger Ebert [0]. I would say it's a similar tendency to use online references as a way to skirt social awkwardness and establish some commonality.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1192222-a-lot-of-fans-are-b...

The easiest way to tell in Europe is that a woman who has never visited USA speaks in phrases or uses slang words that an African-American woman from Atlanta would use. African-American men and women probably have the largest global cultural effect based on the relative size of the community to the population of the world.

An European who is not brit will necessary use phrases amd words taken from internet when speaking english.

Where else would they get English listening and reading? They dont speak English in their local town.

shut yo bitch ass up, you n-word

>guy from a village in eastern europe

My 30 year old sister in law throws disregulated tantrums somewhat similar to a 3 year old. She failed out of college before completing the first semester, went to a bougie AA retreat in Hawaii for many months, made her entire identity AA, until online outrage became mainstream. She might literally have never read a single book cover to cover in her life, and yet has the strongest polarizing opinion you could imagine on every complex topic. She’s basically a sentient Reddit thread.

It’s sad, but also unbearable to be in her presence. The way she screams at her parents is so embarrassing. I feel bad for her parents, but they also coddled her to death and continue to to this day.

Right but what reason do you have to point at the bogeyman of today for all of her failings?

Because she’s glued to her phone and surrounded by friends with similar brain rot

>She might literally have never read a single book cover to cover in her life, and yet has the strongest polarizing opinion you could imagine on every complex topic. She’s basically a sentient Reddit thread.

So, just how outraged is she about Lindsay Clancy not having been acquitted?

What is AA ?

Probably “Alcoholics Anonymous”

Yes, alcoholic anonymous

> I can tell, usually within a few minutes of meeting them, who’s really into social media.

Same for me, except it's people who don't read books.

For my the tell tale sign is being obsessed with conspiracies, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, constantly talking about Jews, freeing Palestine and being antivax. I can almost guarantee someone is influenced by the twitter algorithm from that alone.

I forgot to add, Russia is good, Ukraine is bad

Yep. And the kicker is they are genuinely confused when all this lands badly.

The most pathetic thing I have experienced in my life was, in a Youtube comment section of a dumb meme video obviously aimed at young people, reading an animated conversation about the moral failings of Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

I think about that one a lot.

I went to the beach the other day by myself to decompress and I ended up randomly engaged in conversation with a lifeguard.

We're both in our late 40s so we grew up before the Internet but then aged into it.

Our political views were very different and yet the lengthy conversation that we had was not just polite but also oddly relaxing. We found ourselves finding common ground and even persuading each other to grow our views on some topics.

When I left he told me that this was the nicest most interesting conversation he's had in a long time and I agreed.

And then I remembered having these conversations all the time when I was in my late teens and early to late 20s and that trying to have these conversations in the last decade was always futile so I stopped.

And then I remembered being ashamed of myself several times for being dysregulated and defensive and even volatile, guilty of what you describe and aware of it, not just online but also in person.

So yes I agree with you about what you're saying but sadly I don't know of a solution.