This is really an impressive book because of its deep knowledge of what is going on in language today and its ability to connect it to the past effectively. The author obviously comes from a deep knowledge of language and linguistics, and yet he also has an incredible facility with modern usage. By bridging the history of human language, he’s able to effectively put the strange ways in which language is developing in the age of AI and algorithms into proper perspective.

I found the thoughtful analysis throughout the book to be satisfying and fascinating, having learned new things about the history of human language, as well as getting an in-depth understanding of how technology is having an outsized impact on the way that we communicate these days, whether it is to optimize or to attempt to avoid restrictions put in place by various authorities. It’s fascinating to see how language will always find a way and it was thrilling to learn so much that subject in this exceptional book.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=4.75 | 😘=3.5 | 🤬=4.5 | ⚔️=2 | 17+

summary: etymologynerd talks about how the internet, especially TikTok censorship, has changed language

thoughts: fascinating! loved this—exactly my type of deep dive into internet history linguistic nerdiness. etymology nerd you will ALWAYS be famous

I am a sucker for linguistics and TikTok/Reddit. I could NOT put this one down. I learned about the use of different words from younger generations, the origin of certain words, and even how we are losing the origins of certain words as they get gentrified.

The second half of the book really dove into the social aspects of the origin of certain words and how they are currently used, and some of the issues surrounding it which I found most interesting and was all new information to me.

Internet nerds, rejoice! ALGOSPEAK is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating nonfiction reads of 2025. From cottagecore aesthetics and brainrot to “unalive” making the leap into everyday language, the internet’s influence on how we speak is impossible to ignore.

Viral linguist Adam Aleksic dives deep into how algorithms and social media are reshaping our lexicon—and, in turn, the way we connect, create, and communicate.

Algospeak is a must read for anyone who is chronically online, a fan of languages, or is desperately trying to understand Gen Alpha brain rot. A master of hooking in his audience, Adam Aleksic writes this debut book as if books had been his platform of choice for his whole career. The book is informative, funny, and utterly addicting! His analysis of how alogrithms have influenced language (and how they in turn have influenced us) will shift the way you consume social media, resulting in you paying more attention to the ways we "borrow" language from different groups (notably the Black and LGBT+ communities) and redefine ourselves based on evermore specific classifications (from cottage-core to dark academia) to help feed the metadata loop. Most surprisingly is the way Aleksic is able to connect our seemingly "new age" online brain rot to trends and phenomena that have spanned human history.

A five star read, through and through.

Thank you to Net Galley for this advance copy.

This book is exactly at the intersection of my interests (linguistics, language change, the internet, pop culture, etc.) so I’m not surprised that I really liked it! I did think that at times the topics wandered a little too much, some chapters were less linguistic focused, but overall all the chapters were engaging. This will also be a fun time capsule of internet slang as it exists right now. Recommend if you want an accessible book about language topics (if you liked things like Wordslut and Because Internet).
Thanks to NetGalley for this arc!