Ethan Week 1: Who is “Bro” – 8/26 [8:50pm]
Anyone Gen Z and younger is bilingual. Not in the sense that they can speak in two languages, but in the sense that they could communicate perfectly using “Bro,” “LMAO,” “😭,” and a plethora of other convoluted abbreviations and ambiguous emojis. It shocks me that, at one point in history, language consisted of actual words that actually meant what they said. Now that the Internet has arrived, we have decided that the “💀” could mean anything from this sucks to a form of laughter. This trend doesn’t just occur in English; almost every other language has evolved into this digital jargon. However, this phenomenon reveals something much deeper than just a different form of communication.
Take a moment to read your last text message to your friend and compare that to the last conversation you had with that friend in real life. Most likely, you’ll realize that the way you communicated the same meaning may have been completely different, yet your friend understood it both ways. This matters more than most people think as language isn’t just about communicating information. Linguists have long studied how language helps convey a person’s identity: their social background, personality, and even their sense of belonging. For instance, if I text someone using “BRO NAHH” instead of “that’s crazy,” it can show that I may be closer to this person or that I’m more extroverted.
However, the most interesting finding about how language relates to identity is how it can directly shape it. Think about the first time you got social media or started texting your friends, you probably didn’t know a single abbreviation. Phrases like “istg” or “lmao” only developed into your vocabulary after you were repeatedly being exposed to them. Research shows that the degree to which you unconsciously match another person’s linguistic patterns can reveal how close your relationship is with them. As you slowly understand a community’s slang and jokes, you begin adopting them in your own language, allowing others to recognize that you belong while also reinforcing your sense of belonging. This then not only changes how you talk but also how you see yourself.
Even though you may act differently than the way you text, this online version of you is still you. In the thousands of years of human interaction, people have always learned to adapt their language to fit into different social environments. The internet has just provided us with another way to express this process. Now the next time you send your friend a goofy meme or a wave of emojis, ask yourself: Why did I start communicating like this, and what does it say about me?
Your take on language to personal identity was one that differed dramatically from the rest of our cohort, who shifted more towards cultural connection rather than identity in the social sense, and I admire your bravery. I am a firm believer in what I can only call “monkey see, monkey do”. No matter how far we ‘evolve’, humans are simply a product of imitation of those around us. For me personally, my use of slang does not depend on how close I am to whoever I am communicating with, but more on what word choices they use. More often than not I do not even understand the phrases I am incorporating into my casual day-to-day language, but I use them anyway because it is what my peers are doing. Whether they realize it or not, this is likely the truth for many teenagers as well, because at the end of the day we are all just children trying to fit in.
ReplyDeleteYou framed internet slang not just as lazy typing, but as a legitimate dialect of identity and connection, and that point about linguistic accommodation revealing linguistic closeness was spot on. Comparing “BRO NAHH” to real life code-switching made a complex sociolinguistic concept feel genuinely relatable and fun to read. To push this even further, you could briefly mention how this digital jargon varied between platforms, like how slang evolves differently on TikTok versus in the dredges of Instagram. Its a great reminder that our online voices are just as real as our spoken ones.
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