Algospeak
How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language
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A viral linguist's account of the ways our vocabularies are evolving, the internet's influence on communication, and what our use of language reveals about the modern world
From "brainrot" memes and incel slang to the trend of adding "-core" to different influencer aesthetics, the internet has ushered in an unprecedented linguistic upheaval. We're entering an entirely new era of etymology, heralded by the invisible forces driving social media algorithms. Thankfully, Algospeak is here to explain. As a professional linguist, Adam Aleksic understands the gravity of language and the way we use it: he knows the ways it has morphed and changed, how it reflects society, and how, in its everyday usage, we carry centuries of human history on our tongues. As a social media influencer, Aleksic is also intimately familiar with the internet's reach and how social media impacts the way we engage with one another. New slang emerges and goes viral overnight. Accents are shaped or erased on YouTube. Grammatical rules, loopholes, and patterns surface and transform language as we know it. Our interactions--and our social norms and habits--shift into something completely different.
As Aleksic uses original surveys, data, and internet archival research to usher us through this new linguistic landscape, he also illuminates how communication is changing in both familiar and unprecedented ways. From our use of emojis to sentence structure to the ways younger generations talk about sex and death (see unalive in English and desvivirse in Spanish), we are in a brand-new world, one shaped by algorithms and technology. Algospeak is an energetic, astonishing journey into language, the internet, and what this intersection means for all of us.
About this Author
ADAM ALEKSIC is a linguist and content creator posting educational videos as the "Etymology Nerd" to an audience of more than two million. As a linguistics student at Harvard College, he founded and served as president of the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. He's discussed online language on NPR and repeatedly contributed to The Washington Post, and his work has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Economist, and The Guardian. He's lectured on language and social media at Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and other top universities, including a TEDx talk at the University of Pennsylvania. Aleksic is based in New York City, where he spends a lot of time scrolling TikTok for "research."
Reviews
"There's no one who understands the internet and language better than Adam Aleksic. Blending meticulous research, original data, and an unmatched fluency in online culture, Adam unpacks how our vocabularies are evolving in real time. Algospeak is a masterclass in linguistic evolution and online culture. It doesn't just unpack what's happening to language, but also reveals the many ways the internet is impacting culture and the ways we communicate and connect in person. Incisive and funny, this is a page turner from start to finish. Algospeak is a must read for anyone seeking to understand how we communicate today."
--Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online
"As someone who has neither Tik'd or Tok'd, I found Algospeak enthrallingly enlightening, written in an enticingly friendly way by one of the medium's most linguistically aware and experienced practitioners. Any Gen V [vintage] linguist like me has to read it. But not just us. All who use social media, or are puzzled by it, or are infuriated by it, will benefit from a reading. It's a brilliant exposé of the aims and strategies underlying the algorithms that control these media, and of the motivations of the companies who create them, as well as providing a beautifully illustrated account of how users change language in order to respond to them. Algospeak takes our understanding of online communication to a new level."
--David Crystal, author of How Language Works
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