“Then 10 years from now, people will think you’re old fashioned.”
December 14, 2022 3:18 PM Subscribe
Thank goodness my old GenX butt mentors this excellent age group. That’s the only reason I passed, but I learned most of these the hard way. The plain smiley face one led to the most confusion between age groups.
I’m a big supporter of solidarity across the age gap, because I remember being the “trouble” generation to my elders.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:26 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
I’m a big supporter of solidarity across the age gap, because I remember being the “trouble” generation to my elders.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:26 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
> So we can rest fairly assured that all of those emojis and terms are at least 6 years out of vogue at this point, right? [skull emoji]
I was able to answer a majority of these correctly, so yes definitely this quiz is years out of date.
posted by splitpeasoup at 3:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [31 favorites]
I was able to answer a majority of these correctly, so yes definitely this quiz is years out of date.
posted by splitpeasoup at 3:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [31 favorites]
So, I'm currently mentoring new grad hires at work (a job duty that I find very important) and a) a large part of that is setting expectations and understanding of what a professional work environment is like (especially given that they're just out of college - had to tell one that I could not care less about when he went to the bathroom or lunch, because I expected him to be conscientious) and b) teaching them how to communicate (we made all our junior developers join Toastmasters (on the company dime, of course) because we saw a communication gap issue.) This article does not get the point at all.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
Slay!
[almost appropriate late gen-x smiley]
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
[almost appropriate late gen-x smiley]
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
6/6 💅🏻
posted by taz at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by taz at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
I did fine at this, which means I'm either "still with it" or this quiz isn't.
The semi-aggressive reading of "." and :) confounds me.
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
The semi-aggressive reading of "." and :) confounds me.
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
6/6 but I cringed the entire time.
posted by merriment at 3:38 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by merriment at 3:38 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
I got 6/6 (slay!) and was feeling pretty good about it, then I read this sentence:
Thank goodness my old GenX butt mentors this excellent age group
and spent a full minute wondering what the heck "butt mentoring" was.
posted by rpfields at 3:39 PM on December 14, 2022 [40 favorites]
Thank goodness my old GenX butt mentors this excellent age group
and spent a full minute wondering what the heck "butt mentoring" was.
posted by rpfields at 3:39 PM on December 14, 2022 [40 favorites]
We were just talking about this at work. It feels like someone may have played a joke on the Post: this is definitely not fresh slang.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:41 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:41 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Goddamnit millennials invented the one line text message and aggressive period! This test is a sham!
posted by muddgirl at 3:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 3:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [18 favorites]
I think the analysis of 🙂 is a little shallow. It's off-putting in this context because it makes the writer seem sarcastic for using a tone indicator to convey a neutral tone. Or "smooth-brained" for not understanding the conversational maxims of accurate tone indication.
posted by Phssthpok at 3:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Phssthpok at 3:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Lamestain
posted by surlyben at 3:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by surlyben at 3:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [12 favorites]
2/6. Would elaborate but there’s a good episode of Matlock on.
posted by The Gooch at 3:52 PM on December 14, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by The Gooch at 3:52 PM on December 14, 2022 [13 favorites]
I had my 20 year old take this quiz. He took some issue with the tone of the piece - he said it read like animal facts but for Gen Z.
posted by jeoc at 3:55 PM on December 14, 2022 [42 favorites]
posted by jeoc at 3:55 PM on December 14, 2022 [42 favorites]
The Young People have their own slang and the Washington Post is On It! 💀 💅 🦠 📟
posted by Nelson at 3:59 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 3:59 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
Over 40, 6/6. I suspect a combination of “these are actually late millenial habits, not Gen Z” and “I work with a lot of game developers in their mid-20s to early-30s, and all of us are working remote + communicating via Slack all day.”
posted by Ryvar at 4:02 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Ryvar at 4:02 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
50. 6/6, the undergrads I teach still think I'm cringe
posted by humbug at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by humbug at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
5/6
The one that confused me was "out of pocket." I didn't understand the alleged "old" meaning, either. To me it sounds like you're paying your own way.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:11 PM on December 14, 2022 [30 favorites]
The one that confused me was "out of pocket." I didn't understand the alleged "old" meaning, either. To me it sounds like you're paying your own way.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:11 PM on December 14, 2022 [30 favorites]
"Goddamnit millennials invented the one line text message and aggressive period! This test is a sham!"
K.
🙂
posted by Jacen at 4:15 PM on December 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
K.
🙂
posted by Jacen at 4:15 PM on December 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
I was confused by "out of pocket" as well. I associate it with medical insurance and/or with being out of (usually monetary) resources. I've never heard anyone use it in the context of work. Maybe it's a geographical thing?
posted by treepour at 4:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by treepour at 4:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
They forgot the part where the 'thumbs up' emoji is now sarcastic.
posted by ananci at 4:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by ananci at 4:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I dunno, I assume that if you work with people who are constantly using emojis, you'll pick it up just like you would if you were around a lot of people who used slang or casual expressions that you didn't know. All these "the generations however will they understand each other" stories assume a spherical Zoomer, so to speak - when we have conversations with people, or even text exchanges, there's a lot more going on than just "i know a slang" "I am baffled by this slang" "Oh dear we have no way to communicate".
Also a lot of emojis are really situational.
Also, also - the whole "young adults think their elders are universally cringe because they part their hair wrong and don't know the slang" bit is stupid. I mean, I was once a prince like you - er, a young adult with a job - and while some people definitely caused me sympathetic embarrassment it wasn't because they didn't do young people stuff, because frankly it would have been weird if some fifty-ish middle manager dressed and spoke just like I did. And in college, sure, I liked some of my younger, hipper professors, but I also liked some of my older non-with-it professors, because what you look for in a professor is not, in fact, with-it-ness.
It's teenagers who get very anxious when adults aren't with it, and that's because teenagers don't have a lot of autonomy and are still developing strong senses of self, so they feel that they can be "contaminated" by having an unfashionable parent or talking to someone who dresses wrong. Once you develop a firmer sense of self, you stop feeling that merely being around someone who isn't fashionable somehow reflects badly on you.
I dunno, happy is he who in his youth is young, but also happy is he who in his age is old; don't do emojis if you don't want to. If you literally only have the most formal online relationship with a subordinate, sure, you probably want to make an effort so that they don't think you're angry at them all the time due to punctuation, but otherwise, you know, if your colleagues know you at all they aren't going to think "OMG why is this person using a period".
I'm a big nerd Old and write a lot of fully-rounded sentences, and I have a lot of friends of all ages. That's who I am, that's what I do, and while I try to keep up enough to avoid double entendres and confusion (when I grew up "out of pocket" meant "did not get repaid for expenses") I also figure that young people can, as can I, google things that have multiple meanings or else infer from context.
There's way too much generation gap stuff in our culture, IYAM
posted by Frowner at 4:22 PM on December 14, 2022 [26 favorites]
Also a lot of emojis are really situational.
Also, also - the whole "young adults think their elders are universally cringe because they part their hair wrong and don't know the slang" bit is stupid. I mean, I was once a prince like you - er, a young adult with a job - and while some people definitely caused me sympathetic embarrassment it wasn't because they didn't do young people stuff, because frankly it would have been weird if some fifty-ish middle manager dressed and spoke just like I did. And in college, sure, I liked some of my younger, hipper professors, but I also liked some of my older non-with-it professors, because what you look for in a professor is not, in fact, with-it-ness.
It's teenagers who get very anxious when adults aren't with it, and that's because teenagers don't have a lot of autonomy and are still developing strong senses of self, so they feel that they can be "contaminated" by having an unfashionable parent or talking to someone who dresses wrong. Once you develop a firmer sense of self, you stop feeling that merely being around someone who isn't fashionable somehow reflects badly on you.
I dunno, happy is he who in his youth is young, but also happy is he who in his age is old; don't do emojis if you don't want to. If you literally only have the most formal online relationship with a subordinate, sure, you probably want to make an effort so that they don't think you're angry at them all the time due to punctuation, but otherwise, you know, if your colleagues know you at all they aren't going to think "OMG why is this person using a period".
I'm a big nerd Old and write a lot of fully-rounded sentences, and I have a lot of friends of all ages. That's who I am, that's what I do, and while I try to keep up enough to avoid double entendres and confusion (when I grew up "out of pocket" meant "did not get repaid for expenses") I also figure that young people can, as can I, google things that have multiple meanings or else infer from context.
There's way too much generation gap stuff in our culture, IYAM
posted by Frowner at 4:22 PM on December 14, 2022 [26 favorites]
> The one that confused me was "out of pocket." I didn't understand the alleged "old" meaning, either. To me it sounds like you're paying your own way.
Yeah, same here. I've never heard "out of pocket" used in the old or the new sense. To me it means I'm paying for something. I'm right on the border of Gen X / Millennial (but lean Gen X) FWIW.
posted by synecdoche at 4:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
Yeah, same here. I've never heard "out of pocket" used in the old or the new sense. To me it means I'm paying for something. I'm right on the border of Gen X / Millennial (but lean Gen X) FWIW.
posted by synecdoche at 4:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
Uhoh - what’s the new “thumbs up?”
posted by mmiddle at 4:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mmiddle at 4:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have heard "out of pocket" in the wild as "out of the office" and it really took me a few minutes and all of the context clues to figure out what it meant because I really did not think my (admittedly very cool) boss was going to go do a bunch of shots and, like, dance on a table or whatever.
I do like thinking about myself as having a cozy little pocket where people can find me, like a bunny.
posted by blnkfrnk at 4:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
I do like thinking about myself as having a cozy little pocket where people can find me, like a bunny.
posted by blnkfrnk at 4:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
"out of pocket" meaning "I'm not going to be answering my phone" I'm pretty sure comes from spy lingo so Very Important Businessmen who think they are James Bond like to use it.
posted by muddgirl at 4:29 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 4:29 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
> The one that confused me was "out of pocket." I didn't understand the alleged "old" meaning, either. To me it sounds like you're paying your own way.
I'd never heard that phrase until I started my current job, where everyone about 15 or 20 years older than me was saying it so I picked it up from context. Googling for where the phrase comes from, I get this:
Using the phrase out of pocket to mean unavailable traces back to an O. Henry story in 1908, in the following sentence:
“Just now she is out of pocket. And I shall find her as soon as I can.”
This meaning became popular in the 1970s.
That 1970s part makes sense, given the age of the people I hear saying this.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
I'd never heard that phrase until I started my current job, where everyone about 15 or 20 years older than me was saying it so I picked it up from context. Googling for where the phrase comes from, I get this:
Using the phrase out of pocket to mean unavailable traces back to an O. Henry story in 1908, in the following sentence:
“Just now she is out of pocket. And I shall find her as soon as I can.”
This meaning became popular in the 1970s.
That 1970s part makes sense, given the age of the people I hear saying this.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:31 PM on December 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
"out of pocket" meaning "I'm not going to be answering my phone" I'm pretty sure comes from spy lingo/
As far as I know it was popularized in some movie in the mid aughts - just like people started saying "in the wind" because it sounded like they were in a cool TV show or something. It certainly didn't originate then but that was when I started hearing it regularly.
posted by Frowner at 4:38 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I've always heard "out of pocket" to mean "broke," as in "I'm a little out of pocket" or "expensive" as in "the price of that thing is out of pocket," or else as insurance jargon meaning "the insurance company is not paying for it, you are," which is related enough to the other meanings that it makes sense to me. First time I've heard "unavailable" or whatever the alleged gen z definition is.
The movie spy lingo theory for "unavailable" makes sense to me.
posted by surlyben at 4:40 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
The movie spy lingo theory for "unavailable" makes sense to me.
posted by surlyben at 4:40 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
As a Gen-X I'm confused by the whole thing so I'm just gonna set your performance review to [3 - AVERAGE] and hit submit.
posted by JoeZydeco at 4:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 4:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [14 favorites]
no mention of “based” “pilled” or “maxxing”? this is just millennial slang!
posted by dis_integration at 4:46 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 4:46 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm just gonna set your performance review to [3 - AVERAGE] and hit submit.
Too late, already did in my self assessment.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:47 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Too late, already did in my self assessment.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:47 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I've seen that "out of pocket" apparently might mean "crazy" or "out of money" depending on what generation you're from, except I've never once seen that phrase used in the wild before the quizzes asking about it started showing up.
posted by mhoye at 4:47 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by mhoye at 4:47 PM on December 14, 2022
“out of pocket” for acting wild/unhinged is not zoomer slang, it’s black american slang (although to be fair, this is also the case for just about all american slang since reconstruction). i heard it from black friends 20 years ago as a teenager
posted by dis_integration at 4:51 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 4:51 PM on December 14, 2022 [11 favorites]
I'm quite sure I heard it and "in the wind" on The Wire.
posted by LionIndex at 4:53 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by LionIndex at 4:53 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
On the flip side of this, as a late Boomer/early Gen X, it is extremely rare for me to see someone under the age of 40 who can do good business writing. I'm not talking in-house emails, I'm talking about writing business correspondence to customers, outside vendors or suppliers; directions for processes or just replying to an angry customer.
Using just words to be precise and concise and to the point is important, because if you end up in court over something it's the words that count.
(Not ranting, just saying.)
posted by ITravelMontana at 4:55 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Using just words to be precise and concise and to the point is important, because if you end up in court over something it's the words that count.
(Not ranting, just saying.)
posted by ITravelMontana at 4:55 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Ditto* what everyone's saying re: out of pocket.
(I actually first heard this as late 20th Cent. street pimp slang; "Girl, why am I always out of pocket on you? you're supposed to be earning me money.")
Can we change this to something more intuitive, like 'off-leash/lead'?
"wasn't Amanda supposed to be in this meeting?" 'Oh, she's doing training at corporate HQ instead of her regular schedule, she's going to be off-leash all week'
*you know, like the Pokémon
posted by bartleby at 4:59 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
(I actually first heard this as late 20th Cent. street pimp slang; "Girl, why am I always out of pocket on you? you're supposed to be earning me money.")
Can we change this to something more intuitive, like 'off-leash/lead'?
"wasn't Amanda supposed to be in this meeting?" 'Oh, she's doing training at corporate HQ instead of her regular schedule, she's going to be off-leash all week'
*you know, like the Pokémon
posted by bartleby at 4:59 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
“out of pocket” for acting wild/unhinged is not zoomer slang, it’s black american slang (although to be fair, this is also the case for just about all american slang since reconstruction). i heard it from black friends 20 years ago as a teenager
And “slay” presumably comes from drag culture, no? It’s not really wrong to say that these meanings are likely to be recognized generationally, any more than it would have been for “hip” or “cool” or whatever after they had crossed over. But it is irritating how these things get attributed to “I dunno it just happened on social media” because the genealogy isn’t actually even slightly obscure, the author is just being lazy.
posted by atoxyl at 5:03 PM on December 14, 2022 [8 favorites]
And “slay” presumably comes from drag culture, no? It’s not really wrong to say that these meanings are likely to be recognized generationally, any more than it would have been for “hip” or “cool” or whatever after they had crossed over. But it is irritating how these things get attributed to “I dunno it just happened on social media” because the genealogy isn’t actually even slightly obscure, the author is just being lazy.
posted by atoxyl at 5:03 PM on December 14, 2022 [8 favorites]
article is an L
this article has no rizz
this article is not my big t******* goth girlfriend
posted by paimapi at 5:04 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
this article has no rizz
this article is not my big t******* goth girlfriend
posted by paimapi at 5:04 PM on December 14, 2022 [9 favorites]
no mention of “based” “pilled” or “maxxing”? this is just millennial slang!
yeah that's manosphere / incel lingo, not gen z broadly
posted by paimapi at 5:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
yeah that's manosphere / incel lingo, not gen z broadly
posted by paimapi at 5:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Ah right this is what that comment on Language Log was about.
posted by rewil at 5:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rewil at 5:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Almost 50, 6/6, only marginally confused by "out of pocket." My job involves hiring university students as assistants for various things, so maybe I'm picking up more through osmosis than I thought?
But "slay" for "made me laugh" is goddamned ALF, people (not that the sitcom originated, I'm just dating the term). Are the kids super into Gordon Schumway?
posted by Shepherd at 5:09 PM on December 14, 2022
But "slay" for "made me laugh" is goddamned ALF, people (not that the sitcom originated, I'm just dating the term). Are the kids super into Gordon Schumway?
posted by Shepherd at 5:09 PM on December 14, 2022
yeah that's manosphere / incel lingo, not gen z broadly
In varying degrees, maybe. I feel like “based” - which was coined in its complementary sense by the very Millennial Lil B before getting appropriated by 4chan - might be on its way back to being a general compliment.
“-pilled” and “-maxxing” are pretty closely bound to the originating ideologies but “-pilled” especially gets a lot of ironic use so I don’t know that it isn’t taking on a life of its own.
posted by atoxyl at 5:13 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
In varying degrees, maybe. I feel like “based” - which was coined in its complementary sense by the very Millennial Lil B before getting appropriated by 4chan - might be on its way back to being a general compliment.
“-pilled” and “-maxxing” are pretty closely bound to the originating ideologies but “-pilled” especially gets a lot of ironic use so I don’t know that it isn’t taking on a life of its own.
posted by atoxyl at 5:13 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
the painting nails emoji makes me think of someone chewing gum and painting their nails and not really listening to someone who's going on and on
'uh-huh. oh that's awful. uh-huh. and then what happened?'
and makes me with there was an emoji for what was, for a brief and shining moment, a shortcut for "um yeah, thanks for sharing that i guess, moving on now": cool story, bro
I will just have to live with responding to someone's overly long unhinged six-paragraph text or email with just
k
posted by bartleby at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2022
'uh-huh. oh that's awful. uh-huh. and then what happened?'
and makes me with there was an emoji for what was, for a brief and shining moment, a shortcut for "um yeah, thanks for sharing that i guess, moving on now": cool story, bro
I will just have to live with responding to someone's overly long unhinged six-paragraph text or email with just
k
posted by bartleby at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2022
> yeah that's manosphere / incel lingo, not gen z broadly
Pilled came out of the matrix derived red-pilled psycho manosphere freaks but is pretty universal now, in an ironic sense. you can be grill-pilled, or tv-pilled, or marx-pilled, or whatever, all it means anymore is that you're into something. Enjoyed Avatar 2? You're avatar-pilled. I'm slangpilled at the moment.
posted by dis_integration at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
Pilled came out of the matrix derived red-pilled psycho manosphere freaks but is pretty universal now, in an ironic sense. you can be grill-pilled, or tv-pilled, or marx-pilled, or whatever, all it means anymore is that you're into something. Enjoyed Avatar 2? You're avatar-pilled. I'm slangpilled at the moment.
posted by dis_integration at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
I feel like that's maybe reddit millenial talk and not gen z at least from what I've seen on the tok 🤷♂️ I also don't think I'd count ironic usage as lingo since the very nature of it is implying thst earnest usage is, as they say, cringe
posted by paimapi at 5:17 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by paimapi at 5:17 PM on December 14, 2022
The “-pilled” thing raises an interesting question - are there past precedents for this sort of thing? Ironic adoption of slang in a way that makes fun of the self-seriousness of people who would use it seriously, turning into eventual broad usage? Or is that strictly a contemporary phenomenon?
posted by atoxyl at 5:19 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by atoxyl at 5:19 PM on December 14, 2022
🕓/🕕
posted by clavdivs at 5:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 5:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Re: out of pocket — you all should look through AskMe more: https://ask.metafilter.com/87766/Out-of-pocket#1293155
posted by drfu at 5:35 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by drfu at 5:35 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I took "out of pocket" in the example as coming from football, where the quarterback "drops out of the poocket" (moves away from his protection) to do something different than the called play, but had no clue what The Youngs might mean by it.
I am 59, got 4/6 right, but do not really care because I am much closer to the end of my career than the beginning, so do not really need to be invested in it, just as I no longer know or care who assorted celebrities are, what sort of music is popular, or whether I need to take this onion off my belt.
posted by briank at 5:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am 59, got 4/6 right, but do not really care because I am much closer to the end of my career than the beginning, so do not really need to be invested in it, just as I no longer know or care who assorted celebrities are, what sort of music is popular, or whether I need to take this onion off my belt.
posted by briank at 5:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
My social circle is, like, 45% Gen Z, 45% Millenial, and 10% Gen X. I associate the skull emoji with Gen Z for sure; without any other information, I’d assume someone using it was under 25.
And I don’t associate “based” with incels so much as like, gaming culture.
But these are just anecdata.
posted by chaiyai at 5:38 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
And I don’t associate “based” with incels so much as like, gaming culture.
But these are just anecdata.
posted by chaiyai at 5:38 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
6/6
I'm 51 and the opposite of cool.
Slay.
posted by signal at 5:44 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm 51 and the opposite of cool.
Slay.
posted by signal at 5:44 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
article is an L
this article has no rizz
this article is not my big t******* goth girlfriend
Thank you for coming in with rizz. The other word that my 15-year-old and his friends have started using all the time is "mid." It means more or less what "basic" meant a little while ago. I, a 57-year-old white woman, am very, very mid.
posted by Well I never at 5:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
this article has no rizz
this article is not my big t******* goth girlfriend
Thank you for coming in with rizz. The other word that my 15-year-old and his friends have started using all the time is "mid." It means more or less what "basic" meant a little while ago. I, a 57-year-old white woman, am very, very mid.
posted by Well I never at 5:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I got 6/6 but, as others have noted, that is more a comment on the quiz being behind-hand than on my own hipness. Or coolness. Or rizz.
posted by Well I never at 5:46 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by Well I never at 5:46 PM on December 14, 2022
23 Skidoo.
posted by kyrademon at 6:10 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by kyrademon at 6:10 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
I am 39 and the only one I didn't get was the "out of pocket" question. I honestly can't say I've heard it used in either of those contexts, and I am so glad that I'm not alone! (I have only heard it to mean paying for something yourself, without being reimbursed).
Also, the other questions feel like they are entirely in the set of conventions I would expect of millennials, so WaPo is being pretty on brand when attributing these to the kids these days.
posted by selenized at 6:17 PM on December 14, 2022
Also, the other questions feel like they are entirely in the set of conventions I would expect of millennials, so WaPo is being pretty on brand when attributing these to the kids these days.
posted by selenized at 6:17 PM on December 14, 2022
Some of this is like, emoji inflation. A regular smiley face is now tepid, and to convey strong laughter you now need to die laughing. I recently saw someone comment they'll use LMAO for mild laughter and keysmash if they're really laughing hard. (I did not confirm their age)
posted by RobotHero at 6:30 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by RobotHero at 6:30 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Big yikes, this cheugy page is sus AF 🤨
posted by credulous at 6:35 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by credulous at 6:35 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
> ananci: "They forgot the part where the 'thumbs up' emoji is now sarcastic."
Oh yeah, apparently this is one major divide between the olds and the youngs. However, in my experience, if you're an old and you send a 👍 to a young in a work context, it's less likely to be interpreted in that manner. It's really when a young sends a 👍 to another young where it has teeth. I recall hearing an amusing anecdote on some podcast where basically a FB marketplace transaction gone wrong devolved into an emoji battle where the two antagonists just kept sending sarcastic, passive aggressive 👍's back and forth to each other.
posted by mhum at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah, apparently this is one major divide between the olds and the youngs. However, in my experience, if you're an old and you send a 👍 to a young in a work context, it's less likely to be interpreted in that manner. It's really when a young sends a 👍 to another young where it has teeth. I recall hearing an amusing anecdote on some podcast where basically a FB marketplace transaction gone wrong devolved into an emoji battle where the two antagonists just kept sending sarcastic, passive aggressive 👍's back and forth to each other.
posted by mhum at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I heard the 'new' usage for out of pocket the first time on TikTok like... last week (was used to describe someone who'd said something really weird/ random). Not sure if it's actually new slang in that use, I'm not cutting edge or anything.
I always thought 'out of pocket' to say you'd be unavailable was pretty standard office speak for all ages. Hmm.
posted by geegollygosh at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022
I always thought 'out of pocket' to say you'd be unavailable was pretty standard office speak for all ages. Hmm.
posted by geegollygosh at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022
I'm old enough (63) to not really care how WRONG I may seem in a younger person's mind. What I object to is a multiple choice test that doesn't offer "I don't know" as an option. For context, I had a geography teacher in high school (an excellent teacher) who didn't just mark you wrong for making the wrong choice, he docked you an extra mark for guessing. So yeah, each wrong guess cost you two marks off your total. You quickly learned to stop guessing.
His logic:
"In the greater scheme of things, it does neither of us any good if you happen to guess correctly. I'm left with the impression that you know something you don't. You're left with the impression that it's better to bullshit* than just admit you don't know something. It's not."
* he probably didn't actually say bullshit but we knew what he meant.
posted by philip-random at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
His logic:
"In the greater scheme of things, it does neither of us any good if you happen to guess correctly. I'm left with the impression that you know something you don't. You're left with the impression that it's better to bullshit* than just admit you don't know something. It's not."
* he probably didn't actually say bullshit but we knew what he meant.
posted by philip-random at 6:42 PM on December 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
6/6, Gen Xer who has vanishingly small amounts of interaction with anyone younger. The "old" meaning of out of pocket was not one that I'd heard, I always heard/used it as "it's on my own dime." Which, come to think of it, is probably an expression that harkens back to an even earlier age.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:43 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
"A dime ain't worth a nickel these days", as Yogi Berra said. Now it's time for me to get a bicarbonate of soda from the icebox and light up a jazz cigarette.
posted by Crane Shot at 6:46 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by Crane Shot at 6:46 PM on December 14, 2022
People still say they are “paying out of pocket” but that’s different from saying a person is “out of pocket.”
posted by atoxyl at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by atoxyl at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
As a middle Milennial I guess I’d recognize a couple of meanings of saying a person is “out of pocket” because the “unavailable” one is usually applied to oneself and the “acting crazy or inappropriate, out of control” one is usually applied to someone else. But the former definitely feels like a bit of a weird older person business speak thing to me. It’s not something I’d say, because it always makes me think of the latter.
posted by atoxyl at 6:56 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by atoxyl at 6:56 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Harsh realm.
posted by nickzoic at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by nickzoic at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
So "out of pocket" means "off the chain," got it.
posted by rhizome at 6:58 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 6:58 PM on December 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
It would seem they have a similar metaphorical origin even but “off the chain” has a way more positive connotation at this point
posted by atoxyl at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by atoxyl at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here are things I would NEVER use in a work e-mail:
- Emojis
- Slang
- Periods
- Words
- Symbols
- Attempts at written communication of any kind
- I am a cat
- Why is my food bowl not completely full, human?
posted by kyrademon at 7:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
- Emojis
- Slang
- Periods
- Words
- Symbols
- Attempts at written communication of any kind
- I am a cat
- Why is my food bowl not completely full, human?
posted by kyrademon at 7:06 PM on December 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
one person’s off the chain is another’s out of pocket
posted by dis_integration at 7:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 7:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
55, 5/6, and the one I missed was "out of pocket". Out of pocket is occasionally mentioned in our online gaming group ("I'll be out of pocket this weekend so don't look for me") but I wouldn't say that in a work context. I'd say "AFK" (away from keyboard) instead.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 8:10 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by gentlyepigrams at 8:10 PM on December 14, 2022
I'm annoyed about the thumbs up is sarcastic - most of my work communication these days is in goddamn teams, and it has a limited set of emoji you can use to quickly reply to a message. Most people are using the heart to imply "yes/good/thanks/like" which is what I would think the thumbs up should be for. I'm not sending hearts to some dude I've never even met, when all I want to say is "yes that's the information I required we need have no further conversation" And yes I know that teams has some stock replies you can send with just a click, but that doesn't really convey the "no further conversation" bit as well as stopping replying. So I just keep using the thumbs up. maybe I'm not such a nice person.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:11 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:11 PM on December 14, 2022
Replacement for 👍🏼 is 😚
posted by waving at 8:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 8:18 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
The one that got me and made me feel old, back when the pandemic started and my hobby switched over to Zoom, I had said to the younger members - "I'll open the bridge soon and we can talk there"
They were flummoxed. I was flummoxed back. Then I remembered, they've never had to actually setup an actual telephone bridge to have a conference.
I'm not that old
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:24 PM on December 14, 2022
They were flummoxed. I was flummoxed back. Then I remembered, they've never had to actually setup an actual telephone bridge to have a conference.
I'm not that old
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:24 PM on December 14, 2022
I'm annoyed about the thumbs up is sarcastic
I feel like that one is overstated and contextual but maybe people at work think I’m a dick.
(This entire conversation about emoji use at work only makes sense in context of Slack etc. having emoji reactions as a feature, right? It’s not as if there are decades of language evolution going into this, the whole idea is pretty recent, even compared to the idea of emojis.)
posted by atoxyl at 8:46 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I feel like that one is overstated and contextual but maybe people at work think I’m a dick.
(This entire conversation about emoji use at work only makes sense in context of Slack etc. having emoji reactions as a feature, right? It’s not as if there are decades of language evolution going into this, the whole idea is pretty recent, even compared to the idea of emojis.)
posted by atoxyl at 8:46 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I can think of a few edge cases where I’d consider the thumbs-up sarcastic, but comprehenders are decent at taking context into account; odds are your Gen Z coworkers interpret the emoji the way you meant it. Especially when it’s used as a slack/Teams react! It’d be hard to read that as anything but “got it/agreed”.
posted by chaiyai at 9:03 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by chaiyai at 9:03 PM on December 14, 2022
In my day we used ASCII. And we liked it! :D
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:08 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:08 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Takes too long to ASCII out a ROFLcopter in Slack.
posted by bartleby at 9:14 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by bartleby at 9:14 PM on December 14, 2022
I actually heard the quiz on a podcast but got 6/6 as they went thru the questions.
Last month I said "Fo Shizzle" to a 17yr old and got the most blank look ever. I said, "you know, like Snoop Dogg?" and managed to get an even more blank stare in reply.
posted by jazon at 9:17 PM on December 14, 2022
Last month I said "Fo Shizzle" to a 17yr old and got the most blank look ever. I said, "you know, like Snoop Dogg?" and managed to get an even more blank stare in reply.
posted by jazon at 9:17 PM on December 14, 2022
Since when is "slay" a new slang term? People have been "slaying" stuff since the 1980's. There is even a band: Slay-er. How old is the author of this piece - 90? I'm so confused.
posted by Toddles at 9:25 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Toddles at 9:25 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also everyone knows that women use the smiley face to soften direct orders in emails and chats - that's pretty well-documented. So I'd say that Gen Z is maybe just understanding that better than any other generation that hasn't really thought about gender or race dynamics in the workplace. The smiley face isn't real - and never has been.
posted by Toddles at 9:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Toddles at 9:27 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Slayer the band is referencing literal killing. “Slay” here is referencing figuratively killing it. But as discussed upthread it is in fact also quite old, at least as a queer subcultural thing. It’s just been popularized more recently by shows that gave mainstream exposure to those subcultures.
posted by atoxyl at 9:35 PM on December 14, 2022
posted by atoxyl at 9:35 PM on December 14, 2022
I spend an alarming amount of time writing a slack message and then worrying, "What is the work-appropriate emoji to send with this message? Can I send a heart? Is that weird? Is it weird if I don't?"
My parents asked about work and I told them this dilemma and my father was like, "Honestly, what the fuck, who sends emojis in work e-mails?" except my father has never said the word "fuck" in his entire life so he was totally only thinking it, BUT HE WAS TOTALLY THINKING IT.
I was like, "I just do not know when it's appropriate to send a formal e-mail with no contractions that could totally be published in a discovery request, and when it's appropriate to be like 'Hey Joe, thanks for this document! ❤️❤️❤️' Like, maybe if I don't send him three hearts, he won't do my requests anymore." HOW DO I KNOW???
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
My parents asked about work and I told them this dilemma and my father was like, "Honestly, what the fuck, who sends emojis in work e-mails?" except my father has never said the word "fuck" in his entire life so he was totally only thinking it, BUT HE WAS TOTALLY THINKING IT.
I was like, "I just do not know when it's appropriate to send a formal e-mail with no contractions that could totally be published in a discovery request, and when it's appropriate to be like 'Hey Joe, thanks for this document! ❤️❤️❤️' Like, maybe if I don't send him three hearts, he won't do my requests anymore." HOW DO I KNOW???
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:36 PM on December 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.
I did not get a score.
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 10:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I did not get a score.
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 10:24 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeet this quiz
posted by Jacen at 10:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacen at 10:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
The modern workplace is a harsh realm for cob nobblers. Rock on.
posted by borges at 11:29 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by borges at 11:29 PM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes, this is ridiculously easy. 5 of 6 (got the smile one wrong) and I have never worked with Gen Zers and have probably used emojis fewer than ten times. Good link though, thanks. I particularly like "out of pocket" in that context and need to start using it. Whose pocket am I out of though - theirs or my own?
posted by paduasoy at 12:12 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by paduasoy at 12:12 AM on December 15, 2022
I call you killer, 'cause you slay me.
posted by bartleby at 12:13 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bartleby at 12:13 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
The discussion drfu linked to is interesting. That has out of pocket meaning "out of reach" going back to 1946.
posted by paduasoy at 12:17 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by paduasoy at 12:17 AM on December 15, 2022
I think it would be fun to be in a position to use work messaging emojis not incorrectly, but incomprehensibly.
"Well done everyone, another productive meeting. See you all next week. [rocket][frog]"
'hey Kevin [pizza slice] could you send me the revised TPS reports before you leave for the weekend? thanks [flamingo][barber pole]'
posted by bartleby at 12:25 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Well done everyone, another productive meeting. See you all next week. [rocket][frog]"
'hey Kevin [pizza slice] could you send me the revised TPS reports before you leave for the weekend? thanks [flamingo][barber pole]'
posted by bartleby at 12:25 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
'hey Kevin [pizza slice] could you send me the revised TPS reports before you leave for the weekend? thanks [flamingo][barber pole]'
I'm in a Discord with some ex-coworkers (Gen X to millennial) & every once in a while someone will react to a statement with an emoji I find completely incomprehensible in context, then like five other people will also click on the incomprehensible emoji, & I'm like "I want to understand! but also THEY MUST NEVER KNOW I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ALREADY"
it's a really mild form of hell
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:32 AM on December 15, 2022 [6 favorites]
I'm in a Discord with some ex-coworkers (Gen X to millennial) & every once in a while someone will react to a statement with an emoji I find completely incomprehensible in context, then like five other people will also click on the incomprehensible emoji, & I'm like "I want to understand! but also THEY MUST NEVER KNOW I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ALREADY"
it's a really mild form of hell
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:32 AM on December 15, 2022 [6 favorites]
'hey Kevin [pizza slice] could you send me the revised TPS reports before you leave for the weekend? thanks [flamingo][barber pole]'
I think maybe it was through a metafilter recommendation that I read Several People Are Typing, an epistolary novel except that all the epistolation is happening on a workplace Slack. There was a nice side thread where two people start dating and gradually evolve their own idiosyncratic emoji conventions, only to render themselves incomprehensible when chatting with anyone else.
posted by trig at 1:57 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think maybe it was through a metafilter recommendation that I read Several People Are Typing, an epistolary novel except that all the epistolation is happening on a workplace Slack. There was a nice side thread where two people start dating and gradually evolve their own idiosyncratic emoji conventions, only to render themselves incomprehensible when chatting with anyone else.
posted by trig at 1:57 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
> I think it would be fun to be in a position to use work messaging emojis not incorrectly, but incomprehensibly
I have actually done this a couple of times in a flailing attempt to respond. Though someone then told me that the random emoji I had picked from, I think, the food group, meant something racy. So many traps ...
posted by paduasoy at 2:02 AM on December 15, 2022
I have actually done this a couple of times in a flailing attempt to respond. Though someone then told me that the random emoji I had picked from, I think, the food group, meant something racy. So many traps ...
posted by paduasoy at 2:02 AM on December 15, 2022
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh
posted by lazaruslong at 2:04 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by lazaruslong at 2:04 AM on December 15, 2022
Okay, so here is a situational emoji thing:
The quiz alleges that the skull emoji means "dead of laughter" and yet an actual Gen Z person I follow on twitter used one as recently as last night to mean basically "grrrr I was so annoyed, ha ha but really this was pretty frustrating". Again, all this is so situational. I assume there are probably times when you could literally use the eggplant emoji to talk about eggplant if the context were correct. There's a constellation of meanings, not infinite but large, for emoji just as there are for whole sentences.
Granted, at work I mainly just copy what other people do. We do not have an ironic thumbs up, it's really just an "I agree and this is the tapered off end of the chat" signifier.
posted by Frowner at 5:42 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
The quiz alleges that the skull emoji means "dead of laughter" and yet an actual Gen Z person I follow on twitter used one as recently as last night to mean basically "grrrr I was so annoyed, ha ha but really this was pretty frustrating". Again, all this is so situational. I assume there are probably times when you could literally use the eggplant emoji to talk about eggplant if the context were correct. There's a constellation of meanings, not infinite but large, for emoji just as there are for whole sentences.
Granted, at work I mainly just copy what other people do. We do not have an ironic thumbs up, it's really just an "I agree and this is the tapered off end of the chat" signifier.
posted by Frowner at 5:42 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
Huh, I had always assumed that "out of pocket" was another "begs the question", and was in the process of migrating from "costs not covered" to "unavailable". Sounds like it's been around a lot longer than I thought.
posted by condour75 at 6:45 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by condour75 at 6:45 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I may be 39 years old but when I say "out of pocket" I mean both.
Both of them.
I am going to be unavailable and because I am unavailable I'm going to clear my calendar, eat all of my recreational drugs, and probably start a new hobby.
Fuck, I might have a bonfire all by myself.
What I'm saying is leave me alone, shit's completely off the rails. I'm going to be getting up to some shit. Some real shit, is what I'm saying. And you don't want nothing to do with it and it definitely isn't pertinent to "work."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:02 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
Both of them.
I am going to be unavailable and because I am unavailable I'm going to clear my calendar, eat all of my recreational drugs, and probably start a new hobby.
Fuck, I might have a bonfire all by myself.
What I'm saying is leave me alone, shit's completely off the rails. I'm going to be getting up to some shit. Some real shit, is what I'm saying. And you don't want nothing to do with it and it definitely isn't pertinent to "work."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:02 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
Millennial here, good to see I should keep on converting my 👍s to ✅s to not confuse the youths.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:31 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by deludingmyself at 7:31 AM on December 15, 2022
I got them all right, despite just having turned 39. I blame it on the chronic Internet poisoning.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:10 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:10 AM on December 15, 2022
The modern workplace is a harsh realm for cob nobblers. Rock on.
Horsefeathers by Calhoun is a song where every line is slang old enough to be used by Mr Burns comically on The Simpsons. I should write a millennial version.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2022
Horsefeathers by Calhoun is a song where every line is slang old enough to be used by Mr Burns comically on The Simpsons. I should write a millennial version.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2022
Millennial here, good to see I should keep on converting my 👍s to ✅s to not confuse the youths.
I just send the yutes a gif of Hott Fuzz yarp or Chow Yun Fat giving a thumbs up.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:25 AM on December 15, 2022
I just send the yutes a gif of Hott Fuzz yarp or Chow Yun Fat giving a thumbs up.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:25 AM on December 15, 2022
the random emoji I had picked from, I think, the food group, meant something racy. So many traps
damn this guy really likes eggplant
posted by atoxyl at 8:28 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
damn this guy really likes eggplant
posted by atoxyl at 8:28 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
A coworker I rarely text with but had to send him a text once, in which I ended the correspondence with my trademark 😎👍, was briefly offended by my response because on his phone, the 👍 was rendered in a very blocky way which looked like a middle finger. Thankfully he figured it out.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:46 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:46 AM on December 15, 2022
I think it would be fun to be in a position to use work messaging emojis not incorrectly, but incomprehensibly.
Alternately, aggressively redefine them. 💀? I'm sorry for your loss. Let me know if you need to take bereavement leave. 🍆? Johnson offered to buy lunch. Anyone else up for Italian?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:47 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Alternately, aggressively redefine them. 💀? I'm sorry for your loss. Let me know if you need to take bereavement leave. 🍆? Johnson offered to buy lunch. Anyone else up for Italian?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:47 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
god one of my recurring freelance gigs has an art director who is, like, I guess GenZ? I avoid talking to him as much as possible because he wants to do everything by video and he's constantly using slang I don't know and thankfully there is a secondary AD who is fine with typing stuff into Slack DMs and uses Adult English so that he can talk to my GenX self without having to pause and try to explain what "base-pilled" means in this particular context all the damn time.
This comment sounds so tired and old, doesn't it.
posted by egypturnash at 8:50 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
This comment sounds so tired and old, doesn't it.
posted by egypturnash at 8:50 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
It feels like if someone can't adjust their language/communication approach to meet the needs of their colleagues, that is a them problem and not a Gen Z-specific problem - obviously it can be difficult to 100% fine-tune your approach especially when working remotely, but it should be possible to, like, start with generic business/communication language (does this guy talk like that to his uncle? Did he talk like that to his professors? Almost certainly not.) and adjust from there as a rapport develops.
posted by Frowner at 9:41 AM on December 15, 2022
posted by Frowner at 9:41 AM on December 15, 2022
Thank you for coming in with rizz. The other word that my 15-year-old and his friends have started using all the time is "mid." It means more or less what "basic" meant a little while ago. I, a 57-year-old white woman, am very, very mid.
Mid is my absolute favorite, not least because of how artfully it's deployed by wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
(he later retracted his criticism of Skyline Chili)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:55 AM on December 15, 2022
Mid is my absolute favorite, not least because of how artfully it's deployed by wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
(he later retracted his criticism of Skyline Chili)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:55 AM on December 15, 2022
ChurchHatesTucker: In my day we used ASCII. And we liked it! :D
Hell, we still do! And we still do!
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:13 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hell, we still do! And we still do!
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:13 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I didn’t get any of them, but I texted my GenZ daughter for help. This means that at some point in the next 24 hours the answer will be included in her batched reply to all the texts I have sent her over the day. Then radio (text) silence until the next day.
I’m convinced she (and all her friends, they all do this) evolved this as a response to growing up in potentially instant communication with every single person they have ever met as well as everyone those people know. I can handle real time texting just fine with the half dozen old people I routinely text with. If the GenZ did this, texting is all they would be doing. No time for hacky-sack and grunge music or whatever these kids get up to these days.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 11:09 AM on December 15, 2022
I’m convinced she (and all her friends, they all do this) evolved this as a response to growing up in potentially instant communication with every single person they have ever met as well as everyone those people know. I can handle real time texting just fine with the half dozen old people I routinely text with. If the GenZ did this, texting is all they would be doing. No time for hacky-sack and grunge music or whatever these kids get up to these days.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 11:09 AM on December 15, 2022
1. This is giving me flashbacks to Lyra reading her alethiometer
2. I never use an unfamiliar emoji because it will probably turn out to mean something sexual.
posted by emjaybee at 11:39 AM on December 15, 2022 [6 favorites]
2. I never use an unfamiliar emoji because it will probably turn out to mean something sexual.
posted by emjaybee at 11:39 AM on December 15, 2022 [6 favorites]
This is so freaking funny. My kids are 19 and 14, so of course I got all of these right. Going back now to read the thread.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 12:49 PM on December 15, 2022
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 12:49 PM on December 15, 2022
For those saying that "slay" has been around forever, Gen Z has evolved it recently into basically a pleasant acknowledgment.
The same way that "lol" evolved from "i am laughing out loud" to "i am mildly amused or maybe embarrassed", my 14-year-old now uses "slay" the way you might say "oh, nice."
Me: I picked up Qdoba for dinner.
Teen: Slay.
Me: Your grandmother might come visit this weekend.
Teen: Oh, slay.
Me: I'm going to the store.
Teen: Slay.
The one my kids were talking about the other night was "giving," as in "oh, that look is giving." (See also "serving"). My wife just kept saying, "Giving WHAT?"
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 1:39 PM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
The same way that "lol" evolved from "i am laughing out loud" to "i am mildly amused or maybe embarrassed", my 14-year-old now uses "slay" the way you might say "oh, nice."
Me: I picked up Qdoba for dinner.
Teen: Slay.
Me: Your grandmother might come visit this weekend.
Teen: Oh, slay.
Me: I'm going to the store.
Teen: Slay.
The one my kids were talking about the other night was "giving," as in "oh, that look is giving." (See also "serving"). My wife just kept saying, "Giving WHAT?"
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 1:39 PM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
> Replacement for 👍🏼 is 😚
No way in hell I, as a 60+ white man, will use the kissyface emoji with any coworker, ever.
posted by Wilbefort at 7:13 AM on December 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
No way in hell I, as a 60+ white man, will use the kissyface emoji with any coworker, ever.
posted by Wilbefort at 7:13 AM on December 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
I am mid-forties. Sentences with emojis give me flashbacks to reading Highlights Magazine, where the simplest stories have little inline rebus illustrations so that pre-literate small children can enjoy them. Emoji with multiple layers of meaning make me greater than colon hyphen left parenthesis. I suppose I am a curmudgeon.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 6:16 AM on December 17, 2022
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 6:16 AM on December 17, 2022
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posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:25 PM on December 14, 2022 [33 favorites]