Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language
Adam Aleksic
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 worldFrom the rise of leetspeak and words such as unalive 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 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.
Publication Year: 2025
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More About Influencer / Hyper Online Culture Of The Last Decade And How To Manipulate The Algorithms To Increase Your Reach. This is one of those books where I suspect most people will go into it with one expectation - to learn about the etymology of various terms used online and how the creation and propagation of these terms is shaping the future of language. Instead, what we largely get is a look at influencer and hyper-online culture of the last decade and tips on how to manipulate language so that the algorithms of social media don't shadow ban (or outright ban) you and even how to use them to gain more followers for yourself. In and of itself, this is a rather fascinating look at what it actually is... but that isn't really what was "sold" to us in the (current, one month to the day before publication) description of the book. But is it *quite* enough to justify a star deduction in and of itself? Normally, possibly, but here I'll allow it simply because Aleksic does do a truly great job of explaining what he actually wants to explain... even if this isn't what the description of the book (which isn't controlled exclusively by Aleksic) wants us to believe the book is about. Thus, the star deduction here is actually for the dearth of even really a modicum of a bibliography, at least in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read. Perhaps the final form will include one, and perhaps that bibliography will be roughly 15% or more of the overall text. That would be *awesome* - but that is NOT the version of the book I read, and thus is not the version of the book I must judge. Overall truly an eye opening book roughly about linguistics and etymology, but really more about influencer culture and how to manipulate the algorithms to your own personal gain, this one will be one that will likely fly about that high - perhaps gaining a modicum of attention for a few moments, before the algorithm instead pushes the next Big Thing. Very much recommended.
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