Book Review: ‘Algospeak' shows just how much social media is changing us
That's the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book 'Algospeak.'
If you already know what words
like 'yeet,' 'rizz,' 'brainrot' or 'blackpilled' mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic's 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.
'Algospeak' 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.
This book serves as a sobering reality check on how social media is affecting not just our speech, but our entire identities.
'Social media creates new identities in order to commodify them,' Aleksic writes in a chapter about microtrends and micro-labels. 'Your decisions are now curated for you under the guise of personalization, while in reality they're engineered to make platforms as much money as possible.'
As a self-proclaimed 'etymology nerd,' 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 'algorithm.' His tone is academic, yet approachable, and he's bold but pragmatic in his assertions, exploring counterarguments sufficiently.
He identifies the transient nature of language and the algorithm immediately, since the cultural references in 'Algospeak' risk expiring quickly as trends change and social media platforms shift — but that's the point.
''The algorithm' is here to stay. This is why I think it's absolutely worth talking about even the most fleeting words,' Aleksic writes.
Aleksic's 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's audience. Keeping up with the algorithmic cycle is portrayed as exhausting, but as a necessary evil for influencers supporting their livelihoods through social media.
'Algospeak' 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.
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.
'Algorithms are the culprits, influencers are the accomplices, language is the weapon, and you, dear reader, are the victim,' he writes.
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
How the TikTok algorithm created new words like ‘unalive'
Adam Aleksic has somehow managed to make linguistics cool. His rapid-fire videos have attracted an audience of millions across the social media universe. In them, the Etymology Nerd explores linguistics topics like the semiotics of dating websites, the social science of emoji usage and how we are naming our children after influencers. A Harvard graduate with a linguistics degree, he has now published a book called 'Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language,' which explores in depth some of his more fanciful and fascinating theories. We chatted with Aleksic about edutainment, brainrot and President Trump as influencer in chief. (Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to whose fees support independent bookstores.) Did you get into linguistics because you wanted to explore online language? I don't think you can actually hope to fully be caught up with online language itself, as it's mutating by the minute. The book is more of a road map of the general patterns we're seeing. I personally got interested in etymology in ninth grade. I didn't know I would be going into internet linguistics. How do algorithms shape and change language on the web? You can't avoid talking about algorithms if you're talking about modern language change. I'm looking at my own videos thinking, 'Wow, I can't say this specific word because of the algorithm. I have to say it another way.' I use the example of the word 'unalive' as a replacement for 'kill.' That developed in English-language mental health spaces to circumvent platform community guidelines that were enforced by an algorithm used by Chinese government, which was then retooled for TikTok. Suddenly, 'unalive' was all over the internet. Algorithms are creating new words. In the book, you talk about context collapse, the notion that effective videos are designed to appear as if they are addressed directly to the user, even though they are, in fact, bringing in disparate users to a single focal point. When you're looking at a video on your For You page, you really think it's for you. But it never is. As a creator, I never think about individual people. I think about what's going to go viral, but also, what do I want to make? I make the video first for myself, then I make it for the algorithm. Never do I consider the actual people that end up seeing the video. Your phone is an extension of yourself. You perceive a message coming from your algorithmic version of yourself. The algorithm doesn't actually align who my intended audience might be with who the actual audience is. It just sends my video to whatever makes the most money. What about brainrot — the notion that the internet is damaging young people's ability to think and reason. Does this apply to online language? I think there's no such thing as 'brainrot' with words. They've done neurological studies. No word is worse for your brain than other words. Now, the other stuff, culturally, is another conversation. It probably is bad that these platforms are monopolizing our attention to sell us things. So I can say, linguistically, we're fine. Do you think the internet makes us smarter? It's an interesting question. What is 'smarter'? I know that's a hard thing to define. I think like with any tool, it can be true. Every tool has good and bad, right? You talk about rage-baiting and hyperbole, or hype, as a tool to gain virality online. Our president is quite proficient at this tactic. I think Trump's language uniquely lends itself to virality. He has these phrasal templates, like 'Make X Y Again,' or 'This has been the greatest X in the history of Y.' People use his sentence structures as these skeletons, which they can remix. He coined 'sad' as an interjection, which I regularly see my friends using. I don't know how much of it is intentional. Maybe he just stumbled into it. But the fact of the matter is, I think we have Trump in office because he is uniquely suited to the internet. Chris Vognar chats with Michael M. Grynbaum about his book 'Empire of the Elite,' a history of Condé Nast during its '90s heyday. Hamilton Cain calls 'The Aviator and the Showman,' Laurie Gwen Shapiro's joint biography of Amelia Earhart and her husband, 'a vibrant account of the courtship and union of the famous pilot and her publisher husband whose intrusive management of his wife's career may have cost her life.' According to Ilana Massad, Kashana Cauley's novel 'The Payback,' a satire about student loans, of all things, is a 'terrifically fun book that made me laugh out loud at least once every chapter.' Valorie Castellanos Clark thinks fan fiction writer turned novelist Brigette Knightley's debut novel 'The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy' is 'proof positive that writing fan fiction is an excellent training ground for building a novel.' Today we are chatting with Carlos Chavez, a bookseller at Hennessey + Ingalls, a sprawling space in downtown L.A. that specializes in books about art, architecture, graphic design and all things visual. What's selling right now? Because we are a speciality bookstore, sales are really across the board. Everyday it can be something different. Someone came in yesterday and bought a bunch of books featuring art from the painter and sculptor Claes Odenberg, for example. We also sell a lot of books on industrial design, and fashion designers have been buying books about shoes. The other day a prop designer came in and purchased books with red covers. It's a mixed bag. Art books can be very expensive. Why do you think there is still a market for them, despite the plenitude of images online? There are still plenty of book lovers who want to hold a book, and they want to see it before they buy it. For many of our customers, books are a great source of artistic inspiration of the kind you just can't find online. This is the kind of store where customers are free to linger for hours if they want to. There has been a lot of social unrest downtown this year. How is the store coping? Business has been up and down. Some days are better than others. I think people were scared to come out, but yesterday was a good day, for example.
Hamilton Spectator
6 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
What does one do on their last day as a ballerina? Gillian Murphy will jump off a cliff (gracefully)
NEW YORK (AP) — In every career, there are plenty of consequential decisions to be made. And they tend to get more consequential as time goes on. So it was when Gillian Murphy, one of the most admired American ballerinas for nearly three decades, began contemplating not only when, but how to retire from American Ballet Theatre. She knew she wanted to go out on a high note. Murphy, at 46, is in incredible shape; at a rehearsal earlier this week, she was leaping and twirling like colleagues in their 20s. But in what role should she take her final bow, after 29 years at ABT? Should it be as Juliet? As Giselle? The first of these ends up stabbing herself to death. The other goes mad. The best (and most athletic) option, it turned out, was to jump off a cliff. That's what Odette, the swan queen, does at the end of ABT's version of 'Swan Lake' — followed in this dramatic leap by the prince who loves her, to be joyfully reunited in the afterlife. (In real life they leap onto a mattress offstage, dust themselves off and clamber back for the finale.) Murphy, who's known for her Odette/Odile — especially those fouettés, Odile's fiendishly hard whiplash turns — will be retiring with 'Swan Lake' on Friday night, ending her career in a blur of bouquets, hugs, tears and maybe confetti at the Metropolitan Opera House. 'We will all miss her incredible work ethic, her exacting attention to detail, her strength and her joy of dance,' ABT head Susan Jaffe said in an email. The day after, Murphy will sleep a bit late, hopefully, and start a new life focused on coaching other dancers. She'll also have more time with her 6-year old son, Ax, whom she shares with husband Ethan Stiefel, himself a celebrated former ABT principal. Murphy spoke to The Associated Press in the rushed moments between rehearsals, classes and delayed commuter trains in the days leading up to the big occasion. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. AP: You were only 17 when you joined ABT. Now you're 46. Did you imagine such a long career? MURPHY: I would have never expected to be dancing this long, honestly. I think in my mind I always had 40 years old as a time frame. But I didn't expect to feel this good at this point! I've truly loved my career at ABT, and it's given me the opportunity to dance all over the world. So I'm happy I'm still here.' AP: Ballet takes a huge amount of athletic ability. But you need to be an actor, too. How have your abilities developed as you've gotten older? MURPHY: I do feel that life experience really does come out in performances. And when we're telling these stories about true love and forgiveness and loss, all the dramatic sort of themes that come out in these ballets, it does make a difference when you've experienced those things in your life. AP: Speaking of true love: Some ABT ballerinas have chosen Juliet for their retirement performance. You've chosen a much more physically demanding role: 'Swan Lake.' Just seeing you rehearse it was exhausting. MURPHY: (laughing) It doesn't get any easier, yeah. I have so many favorite roles, but 'Swan Lake' includes two of my most favorite, Odette and Odile. It's always been incredibly challenging, but also so fulfilling. When I was a kid, my dream role was the Black Swan (Odile), actually. So just in a full-circle moment, it feels special to finish with this ballet that I dreamed of doing as a kid, and first did as a young soloist with ABT 24 years ago. AP: Let's not forget that you're known for Odile's fouettés (32 whiplash turns on one leg that the Black Swan performs). Are you still throwing in double turns? MURPHY: Well, I used to throw in triples, triple pirouettes in the middle of the fouettés. Anything could happen on Friday night, but I think I just want to finish strong ... and take risks elsewhere. I'll probably aim to do the 32, possibly with a few doubles in there. AP: It's such a tough call in any career — how did you make the decision to retire now? MURPHY: It's never an easy decision for any dancer. It's a calling from a very early age ... but I've always wanted to finish strong and with my own sense of agency. I really relish when that sense of imagination and life experience and artistry is integrated with the physicality, the athleticism, the technique. And I feel like I'm still in that place where I can do that. So I want to finish with that sense of fullness. AP: How have you managed to keep your conditioning so strong, for so long? MURPHY: I never knew what to expect in terms of how long I'd be able to do this job that I love so much. But I've always had strong feelings about getting plenty of sleep and rest. I try to keep a daily practice of class and sometimes several hours of rehearsal, but also to take at least one day off in the week to recover. And I've always put a priority on being as fit and strong as possible in terms of my nutrition. So, having a really balanced diet and also enjoying desserts and just good quality, good nutritious food, I think that has helped with longevity. AP: It sounds like you're talking about a healthy attitude toward food. MURPHY: A healthy attitude towards food, and also a sense of humor about myself. You know, dancers are not robots. Like an athlete, we can have an off day and (we should) not let that be too discouraging. That's par for the course. AP: Have there been any major injuries or setbacks along the way? MURPHY: I've been pretty fortunate about bouncing back from muscle strains and things like that. I'd say coming back from pregnancy and an emergency c-section was not easy ... but I was able to get onstage and do a full-length 'Giselle' when my son was 8 months old. And then, a couple of weeks after that, the pandemic hit. I had just gotten everything back together. AP: So when you hang up those pointe shoes ... how do you envision spending your time? MURPHY: I'm going to lean into coaching and staging, especially (husband) Ethan's choreography, for the immediate future. I also want to take some time to process this huge transition and consider options and think about what I really want to do. I would be really surprised if it doesn't involve giving back or working in some way in the dance world, because it's so meaningful to me. Clearly, this is a lifetime pursuit.
Hamilton Spectator
8 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
What does one do on their last day as a ballerina? Gillian Murphy jumped off a cliff (gracefully)
NEW YORK (AP) — In every career, there are plenty of consequential decisions to be made. And they tend to get more consequential as time goes on. So it was when Gillian Murphy, one of the most admired American ballerinas for nearly three decades, began contemplating not only when, but how to retire from American Ballet Theatre. She knew she wanted to go out on a high note. Murphy, at 46, is in incredible shape; at a rehearsal earlier this week, she was leaping and twirling like colleagues in their 20s. But in what role should she take her final bow, after 29 years at ABT? Should it be as Juliet? As Giselle? The first of these ends up stabbing herself to death. The other goes mad. The best (and most athletic) option, it turned out, was to jump off a cliff. That's what Odette, the swan queen, does at the end of ABT's version of 'Swan Lake' — followed in this dramatic leap by the prince who loves her, to be joyfully reunited in the afterlife. (In real life they leap onto a mattress offstage, dust themselves off and clamber back for the finale.) Murphy, who's known for her Odette/Odile — especially those fouettés, Odile's fiendishly hard whiplash turns — retired with 'Swan Lake' on Friday night, ending her career in a blur of bouquets, tears and golden confetti. The sold-out Metropolitan Opera House crowd was vocal in their appreciation, cheering her entrances and exits and giving her a standing ovation when she finished her Black Swan variation. Once the ballet finished, the stage filled with Murphy's fellow dancers, teachers and other ABT colleagues bearing flowers. As golden confetti poured from the rafters, Murphy hugged fellow dancers like Misty Copeland, who herself will retire from ABT with fanfare in October. She was also greeted by her husband, former ABT principal dancer Ethan Stiefel, and their 6-year-old son, Ax, who'd just watched him mom perform at the opera house for the first time. Murphy lifted Ax off his feet and twirled him around joyfully. Murphy spoke to The Associated Press in the rushed moments between rehearsals, classes and delayed commuter trains in the days leading up to the big occasion. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. AP: You were only 17 when you joined ABT. Now you're 46. Did you imagine such a long career? MURPHY: I would have never expected to be dancing this long, honestly. I think in my mind I always had 40 years old as a time frame. But I didn't expect to feel this good at this point! I've truly loved my career at ABT, and it's given me the opportunity to dance all over the world. So I'm happy I'm still here.' AP: Ballet takes a huge amount of athletic ability. But you need to be an actor, too. How have your abilities developed as you've gotten older? MURPHY: I do feel that life experience really does come out in performances. And when we're telling these stories about true love and forgiveness and loss, all the dramatic sort of themes that come out in these ballets, it does make a difference when you've experienced those things in your life. AP: Speaking of true love: Some ABT ballerinas have chosen Juliet for their retirement performance. You've chosen a much more physically demanding role: 'Swan Lake.' Just seeing you rehearse it was exhausting. MURPHY: (laughing) It doesn't get any easier, yeah. I have so many favorite roles, but 'Swan Lake' includes two of my most favorite, Odette and Odile. It's always been incredibly challenging, but also so fulfilling. When I was a kid, my dream role was the Black Swan (Odile), actually. So just in a full-circle moment, it feels special to finish with this ballet that I dreamed of doing as a kid, and first did as a young soloist with ABT 24 years ago. AP: Let's not forget that you're known for Odile's fouettés (32 whiplash turns on one leg that the Black Swan performs). Are you still throwing in double turns? MURPHY: Well, I used to throw in triples, triple pirouettes in the middle of the fouettés. Anything could happen on Friday night, but I think I just want to finish strong ... and take risks elsewhere. I'll probably aim to do the 32, possibly with a few doubles in there. AP: It's such a tough call in any career — how did you make the decision to retire now? MURPHY: It's never an easy decision for any dancer. It's a calling from a very early age ... but I've always wanted to finish strong and with my own sense of agency. I really relish when that sense of imagination and life experience and artistry is integrated with the physicality, the athleticism, the technique. And I feel like I'm still in that place where I can do that. So I want to finish with that sense of fullness. AP: How have you managed to keep your conditioning so strong, for so long? MURPHY: I never knew what to expect in terms of how long I'd be able to do this job that I love so much. But I've always had strong feelings about getting plenty of sleep and rest. I try to keep a daily practice of class and sometimes several hours of rehearsal, but also to take at least one day off in the week to recover. And I've always put a priority on being as fit and strong as possible in terms of my nutrition. So, having a really balanced diet and also enjoying desserts and just good quality, good nutritious food, I think that has helped with longevity. AP: It sounds like you're talking about a healthy attitude toward food. MURPHY: A healthy attitude towards food, and also a sense of humor about myself. You know, dancers are not robots. Like an athlete, we can have an off day and (we should) not let that be too discouraging. That's par for the course. AP: Have there been any major injuries or setbacks along the way? MURPHY: I've been pretty fortunate about bouncing back from muscle strains and things like that. I'd say coming back from pregnancy and an emergency c-section was not easy ... but I was able to get onstage and do a full-length 'Giselle' when my son was 8 months old. And then, a couple of weeks after that, the pandemic hit. I had just gotten everything back together. AP: So when you hang up those pointe shoes ... how do you envision spending your time? MURPHY: I'm going to lean into coaching and staging, especially (husband) Ethan's choreography, for the immediate future. I also want to take some time to process this huge transition and consider options and think about what I really want to do. I would be really surprised if it doesn't involve giving back or working in some way in the dance world, because it's so meaningful to me. Clearly, this is a lifetime pursuit.
