I may be a pan-cultural youth vampire, but I think I'll leave gen Z to their slang

Parents trying to decode youth speak are leaving nothing for the young to identify as their own

- Barbara Ellen

For some time I've wondered if there is anything - anything at all - young people can have just for themselves, without older people trying to gatecrash the party?

A Tesco Mobile survey has revealed the slang words and phrases that generation Z uses, and which confuse their parents and older people in general. This is the traditional point when one is supposed to muse, baffled, over youth vernacular, perhaps balk at the Clockwork Orange-esque strangeness of it all.

Sure enough, there are some I don't know: "poggers" (enthusiasm); "drip" (stylish clothes/accessories); "touch grass" (time outside). However, others I've heard of: "finsta" (fake Instagram account to fool parents); "NPC" (non-player character; a nobody); "clout" (influence); "rizz" (charisma); "brat" (confident, rebellious). In fact, there are quite a few on the list I already know. Too many.

First, it should be acknowledged that it is a modern parent's inalienable human right to wind their children up by deploying their slang back at them. After picking up the phrase from Love Island, I had months of fun telling my youngest daughter not to "deep it" (overthink something). The good news: it appears that I am not the 21st-century equivalent of the 20th-century judge who hadn't heard of the Beatles. The bad news: I could be something far worse. A pan-cultural youth-vampire, sinking my old, greedy, generation X fangs deep into the young - their words, clothes, music, TV, films and refusing to let go. What's more, look around, and it's clear I'm not alone.