Earnest Pettie

As adults, we can have an unfortunate habit of forgetting our youth as soon as we’ve left it and policing the next generation according to our own expectations.

There are some indicators that our brain’s ability to process such information has been adapting, slowly, for some time. For example, Moreno compares the evolution of online content with that of television shows. Early TV series were often simple, primarily focusing on one character who faced a small conundrum that would be resolved by the end of t... See more

A sludge video is essentially a video of videos. Internet communities have cracked jokes and made memes about how sludge content is an extreme response to people’s growing need for more and more stimuli to completely fill their attention span.

Other words and phrases, however, somehow manage to transcend their viral origins and embed themselves in the broader language. Terms that have stuck around for a more extended period usually have something within their qualities that makes them stick, remaining relevant throughout time and applicable in various contexts. Thus, for instance, the wo... See more

With TikTok coming into the equation, these usages of the word “rizz” were spread more widely outside their natural habitat. What was once a piece of slang only accessible by certain communities became a word that could appear on anyone’s For You page on Tiktok. Once a term is exposed to the massive Tiktok user base by the algorithm, its popularity... See more