A language #GLOW UP for Gen X from Gen Z

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 Life has weird ways to whack some strange learnings into you! For most, it comes in the form of a child.

Bringing up a Millenial had its elements of fresh learnings which, this #GenX parent assumed will be in existence for at least the next 20 years. Things being ‘awesome’, everyone having a ‘bae’ and ‘chill ma’ being a mantra regularly recited to you, tends to slowly percolate into your system. Sadly the #Millenials remained just that, rarely referred to as an up-trending Gen Y. The blame for the stunted growth of lingo and culture of Millenials, I place squarely on the advent and bold prowess of the next lot known as the “#Gen-Z”

For us GenX, if the previous 10 years were a quiet resignation of acceptance of change, the next 10 years, to date, being upgraded by Gen-Z has been a series of shocked: what? why? how? but why again?

Being #Basic, we the parents were relegated from ‘ma and pa’ to #Bros and #FAM. Following which a sort of machine language took control of family conversations; IDK, FOMO, LMAO, IDC, DYK, DM, OBV, PM, GOAT, Kk... the list was endless. Even family arguments had to be paused to have an update on what words meant. Being in acceptance of the term ‘endless learning’ we, the #Clocked parents, scrambled, confused brains forward to meet the new age lingo.... slowly the understanding of the language of abbreviations started sinking in, but usage in speech remains a struggle. Truly, learning has turned into an activity burdened with doubts!

Just when we thought it was all under control, the ‘phrases’ of the language started confronting us. #DED was not an abbreviation, it is something so funny that it killed you! #BigYikes something shocking, embarrassing, or disturbing!  #Boujee is someone who is fancy and likes extravagant things, #Tea means gossip... #Creps is sneakers... #LIT is when something is amazing, cool, fun, or drunk. There is also a word to make fun of outdated millennial trends #Cheugy !!  The endless nuances of the language have kept us enthralled. “Hi FAM, I’m going to wear CREPS and OBV be LIT when I go to spill some TEA, PM me for anything.”  An innocent attempt at usage, I can see the #Gag on the face of Gen-Z at having got composition, style, and tone all wrong.

The idiom the “Devil is in the details” rightly describes this new-age lingo. The words ‘win and loss’ can be too many letters to slave over, so you can use just ‘W’ and ‘L’. L is the opposite of W used to reference a loss!! #LOL, that was amusing!! When Dank in the dark ages reminded you of a damp and cold place, #Dank now is something excellent and of very high quality!

With age, the #Bros moved into the language of the new age dating scene. The first time the term #Ghosting was revealed, the only word which my mind threw up was ‘why?!’ Ghosts are only credible if they appear on time to spook others. If they only disappear how are they ghosts? #ByeFelicia.  #Caspering killed the image of the chubby cute child-faced ghost of my childhood forever. #BreadCrumbing is so #Boomer! Even the #BreadcrumbNavigation was named by people who had Hansel and Gretel as part of their childhood horror readings, which I doubt GenZ has explored. #Cloaking a revenge act to #Ghosting could have sounded less civil and should be replaced by #Daggering, in my opinion. #Benching and #Zombeing are the apt words for the situation and I have to give credit wholeheartedly to that!

Thus, #bae and I persist with learning at the risk of appearing #extra, with faint dread at what the next generation will drag to the doorstep.

In the form of this age’s utterings “Yolo no point being #Salty, we will #Slay it #Hundo P! ” #Periodt

May #daggering (actually a dance form originating from Jamaica) outlive #cloaking

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