Deciphering the iceberg of internet slang

A "terminally online" journalist explains obscure lingo and why older generations might never fully comprehend it

- Teo Kai Xiang

"Money printer go brrr." "Zendaya spelled backwards is hat." "This meme is an infohazard." If none of that made sense to you, you are experiencing the linguistic equivalent of cultural whiplash. (But do not worry, the sentences above will be demystified in this story.)

An ever-widening divide is playing out in how different generations use an increasingly fragmented internet and discuss daily life.

Digital natives Generation Alpha - born after 2010, weaned on a diet of iPads and often raised by digital natives themselves - are introducing a new lexicon, such as "skibidi" and "rizz", inspired by internet influencers.

Gen Zs - aged 13 to 28 and raised on TikTok or Reddit - are beginning to enter the workplace and stake their claim with phrases such as "slay" and "cringecore".

Meanwhile, millennials - aged 29 to 44, and who grew up in that awkward space between the Walkman audio player and the first iPod - are using parlance like "lit", "HODL" and "negging".

Nowhere is this divide clearer than in the use of language.

On the local HardwareZone forum - where a sizeable chunk of users have accounts created before 2015 and are often older millennials and Gen Xs in their 40s and 50s - conversations carry distinctly local cadences: "9 to 5 everyday pcw on EDMW and jjww about gahmen and angry boomers."

Translation: "Spending my office hours complaining about the government and old people."