An interesting book especially for people who want to understand online lingo. This book does offer insight into why.

I have been trying to read this book. I'm fascinating with linguistics and the origin of words. Unfortunately, my knowledge of social media is limited, and I struggle to understand the symbols that Aleksic uses in tracing the changes in words today. I've made a good faith effort. I'm hoping that the final version of this as it is printed in July has the eggplant emoji, rather than a series of letters, numbers and symbols that mean nothing to me. I am both fascinated and appalled by the need for these new words and emojis to get past censors. I will keep trying to read this book because I am fascinated but wanted to post at least some review for the publishers before it goes out into the world. I may be too late.

A relevant and intriguing book that made me think. This was, perhaps, a little long for what it was, but it was definitely thought provoking and made me think about the evolution of language.

This was such an interesting book.

For a person who loves learning languages and languages in general, this was a very informative, eye-opening book.
In a time when social media affects every single aspects of our lives, one way or the other, it is, for me, fascinating to know a little bit more about the impact of it in terms of language, the ways we communicate and interact.

Thank you Knopf and Netgalley, for the free ARC copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Big thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor Publishers and NetGalley for making Adam Aleksic’s Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language available for review. William S. Burroughs often proposed the idea that language is a virus back in the 1960s, explaining that language will often adapt to novel situations in order to gain prominence and, in Burroughs concerns with propaganda and control, coerce and manipulate individuals and societies especially when others in power have tools and technology to spread this virus. Although he died when dial-up internet was still big in the late 90s, he didn’t live to see the term “going viral” manifest, but I often wonder what he would think of how ideas and trends spread through the internet and social media today. Adam Aleksic, a linguist who creates online content exploring language history and a self-described etymology nerd, has written a book that examines how our increasing time spent online has impacted our language use. While many people may have their own assumptions about the state of language since social media has become increasingly popular (myself included), Aleksic notes, somewhat like Burroughs, that language has always been influenced (or infected) by society and the technology that arises. He cites several pre-digital examples of technology, especially in the more recent eras of mass media that have proliferated new phrases, slang, and phrasal templates that are often adopted and used in novel situations and become part of our common parlance. This was a fascinating book, and while I didn’t agree with everything Aleksic says, especially about algorithms, his book challenged my thinking about language, culture, and technology, and made me a little less concerned and a little more aware of current trends. Although Aleksic is a TikToker, this book is an incredibly useful reference and resource for parents and teachers who may be confronted with the strange new language that their teens and tweens seem to be bringing home from school on a daily basis. Whether they’re asking you to have more rizz or just talking about brain rot, Aleksic provides some useful etymology for these OL terms and how they arrived in our homes IRL. He will frequently use these examples as a starting point to explore more complex linguistic ideas, working from the specific examples to more general frameworks and concepts, and then back to the specific examples. I appreciated this approach since he uses familiar ideas that I’ve encountered with my kids, and this helps to prime me for understanding some of the other learning and language concepts that he presents.
Each chapter deals with a different trend and concept in language, many of which have been proliferated by social media. One of the more interesting concepts that I considered with this book is how social media has sped up the adoption and abandonment of many of these terms. As Aleksic notes, most subgroups or subcultures use language to denote their affiliations or connections. Specialized language helps to bond and demonstrate a shared understanding; yet, oftentimes, when a subculture gradually becomes part of the dominant culture, their language may leak out as well, being absorbed and adopted by the dominant culture. Aleksic uses the example of “cool” as a part of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) used in the 1940s. As African American culture became more influential in the dominant American culture, many phrases and terms were adopted, and we eventually have the word cool, which still exists, although it may not be used by the vanguard of culture anymore. As Aleksic also noted from interviews and surveys with middle school students, once older generations or those on the outside (or within the dominant culture) begin to use these terms, those within the subcultures often adopt new phrases and terms, abandoning what was once theirs. The internet and social media are speeding up this process, enabling language to proliferate quicker than ever, especially through short-form videos popularized by Vine, a TikTok predecessor, and TikTok.
Aleksic is a skilled writer who is able to convey complex concepts and ideas to a broad audience, most likely due to his experience and success as a successful content creator on social media. For example, the first chapter uses the whac-a-mole analogy to explain how online language has adapted to evade censors and content checkers. Posters online have developed euphemisms and other representations to identify new ways of expressing controversial and hotly debated topics. This use of language has extended into real life where Aleksic found an example of the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture used the term “unalive” to explain Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994. While this book examines the etymology of many different terms and phrases from OL that have made it into our IRL convos, Aleksic explores how algorithms have helped to shape much of the ways we talk. Again, this is something I first noticed with my kids around the start of the pandemic when screen time increased and there was little to do around the house. One activity that my kids enjoyed engaging in was making videos on their iPads. I was amazed that my kids would hit record and start the video with something like “Hi everyone, today we’re going to…” and often end with “Don’t forget to hit that like button…” It was just something they associated with videos from viewing content online, most likely watching other kids unbox toys. Nevertheless, youtube kids continued to push these videos as my kids engaged with similar videos more and more. Aleksic not only explains how these templates repeat as the popularity of these videos ends up replicating them, but he also notes that many of the opening phrase templates use the kind of language and tones that are a part of children’s television shows like Sesame Street, which makes sense when creators are trying to engage their audience, but also appeal to familiarity.
The chapters that dealt with etymology tracing the history of popular slang terms were probably my favorite. In one chapter titled “It’s Giving Appropriation”, Aleksic uses terms like slay, fam, and throwing shade to examine how words from the Ballroom Drag scene of the 70s and 80s NYC made their way onto social media and eventually into more popular parlance, moving from an underground marginalized community to the mainstream, dominant culture. Furthermore, Aleksic notes how this kind of appropriation often fails to denote the language’s origins, as well as the kinds of risk that this appropriation might hold for marginalized communities. As Aleksic repeatedly reminds us, language, and specifically slang or these kinds of specialized terms used by a subculture, are a strong indication of identity and belonging, and when these terms become assimilated into the dominant culture, this may pose a risk to the subculture’s identity. The chapter that precedes “It’s Giving Appropriation” is titled “Wordpilled Slangmaxxing”, and I initially found it upsetting since the focus is on incel language. Although Aleksic uses incels as another frame of reference for tracing what are now more common terms, I initially wondered why the book focused on this abhorrent, misogynistic, helpless group. Although incels are pathetic, Aleksic explores how their language was catchy, using combinations of familiar terms in novel ways, and managed to convert some people online. The chapter primarily examines how words like Sigma and looksmaxxing were diffused through memes posted on 4chan, where the anonymity of posters allowed incels to run wild. It was a little disturbing to think about how these terms my kids use originated as incel ideas, but again, Aleksic notes how over time, memes allow ideas and language in particular to morph and adapt for novel adoption in different environments. It’s a truly fascinating look at how abhorrent ideas are reshaped and recast into the dominant culture and eventually lose their meaning. This also highlights the kind of duality of how language and idea diffusion from subcultures to the dominant culture can be both positive and negative. In some ways, the diffusion can lessen horrible ideas and bring about less relevance to hate groups, but in other ways, this kind of appropriation can begin to trample on the originality and uniqueness of subcultures or marginalized groups.
Aleksic also notes this duality when he discusses algorithms towards the later chapters in the book. One fascinating chapter, “What Are We Wearing This Summer?”, examines how “core” groups are formed online, but in turn how many of these specialized subcultures are frequently targeted by marketers and corporations. It was interesting to learn about so many of these subcultures (cottagecore, goblincore) and how corporations use a targeted marketing strategy of trying to get smaller groups to buy more products to stand out with their individuality. It also seemed like some of the platforms and corporations work to create new subcultures or genres of music to appeal to people. I’ve often wondered about how some of these new genres have formed, but it seems like it’s possibly a corporate creation, which in turn, ends up driving some artists to make music or art to fit that genre. It’s a strange kind of hamster wheel like cycle, where I wondered what was really driving the creation and consumption of art—the individuality of the participants or the bottom line of corporations.
The one idea that I somewhat disagreed with Aleksic is in the last chapter. “At the same time, algorithms aren’t all bad. In democratizing public communication, they’ve given us more access than ever to public video evidence and records…Now that anybody can have a platform, it’s harder for elite powers to set the agenda by manufacturing consent…” Although I agree that social media has provided more people with a platform for communication and information, I’m not sure if everyone is using it for that purpose. While people have freedom of expression and can use social media for art and creation as well as information dissemination, we also see how many people use social media for personal gain or to promote disinformation. Furthermore, I question whether social media, which are large corporations who rely on selling our personal data and information to other large corporations, are really democratizing information. In a recent election, two owners of social media companies teamed up to win a close and contentious election. I often wonder what role Twitter had in the 2024 election. Were certain voices algorithmically suppressed, while other voices possibly received more attention, likes and retweets? What role, if any, did that have on people’s likelihood of voting for candidates? We also know that with twitter’s new owner, there was a promise to return to absolute first amendment rights, whether the information was true or not. We saw how the power of language and disinformation on social media led to the violence of January 6th. Meta is now going to abandon the fact checking it put in place after COVID disinformation ran rampant on its platform. I wonder how much more algorithms will favor the kinds of fictions people may prefer to hear or that social media companies know will draw more engagement, whether it is through affinities or rage. In 2017, Franklin Foer wrestled with the implications of the algorithm on our daily life, noting that engineers have frequently sought to optimize our lives and make daily life more efficient. The algorithm is one of the primary tools for this, and while yes, it does bring us recommendations or content that it thinks we will enjoy or engage with, some of them are programmed to present us with more extreme content, since social science has indicated that people react more strongly to extreme content. In Foer’s argument, he suggests that the cost of this efficiency is our free will. Social media corporations seek our attention and engagement, but also want to make decisions for us, which is a scary concept. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that social media is a significant part of our daily lives, and Aleksic’s book highlights how language in particular is influenced by social media. This is a fascinating book that challenges our assumptions about language and social media, allowing us to reconsider its influence by reminding us that technology and other human innovations have always had a bidirectional influence on language, each working to shape one another. Despite some of my own concerns about how algorithms are affecting our lives, I found this book to be enlightening and entertaining. Aleksic’s experience as a content creator demonstrates that he knows how to appeal to a broad audience and make complicated topics relevant and interesting for almost everyone. This is a great book for parents, teachers, and any other etymology nerds.

I love words almost as much as the author. I really enjoyed this book. I learned quite a bit reading this book. The author explained a lot that I didn’t know and I am glad that I got the chance to read this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and Knopf Pantheon Vintage and Ancho for this advanced reader copy and this is my honest review.

Great insight to linguistic evolution! Very intriguing, well written and gives numerous examples throughout.

I follow Adam on social media, and I really enjoy his content, so I was excited to see he was writing a book on linguistics. The book was informative, but there were some online references that didn’t come across well if you had never seen the videos referenced, which made some of the information hard to follow. My main complaint was that too much of the book felt like a guide for how to have a better internet presence and less of a book on linguistics. I learned a lot and was engaged throughout the book. It was easy to picture this being narrated in his social media video style

More About Influencer / Hyper Online Culture Of The Last Decade And How To Manipulate The Algorithms To Increase Your Reach. This is one of those books where I suspect most people will go into it with one expectation - to learn about the etymology of various terms used online and how the creation and propagation of these terms is shaping the future of language.

Instead, what we largely get is a look at influencer and hyper-online culture of the last decade and tips on how to manipulate language so that the algorithms of social media don't shadow ban (or outright ban) you and even how to use them to gain more followers for yourself.

In and of itself, this is a rather fascinating look at what it actually is... but that isn't really what was "sold" to us in the (current, one month to the day before publication) description of the book. But is it *quite* enough to justify a star deduction in and of itself? Normally, possibly, but here I'll allow it simply because Aleksic does do a truly great job of explaining what he actually wants to explain... even if this isn't what the description of the book (which isn't controlled exclusively by Aleksic) wants us to believe the book is about.

Thus, the star deduction here is actually for the dearth of even really a modicum of a bibliography, at least in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read. Perhaps the final form will include one, and perhaps that bibliography will be roughly 15% or more of the overall text. That would be *awesome* - but that is NOT the version of the book I read, and thus is not the version of the book I must judge.

Overall truly an eye opening book roughly about linguistics and etymology, but really more about influencer culture and how to manipulate the algorithms to your own personal gain, this one will be one that will likely fly about that high - perhaps gaining a modicum of attention for a few moments, before the algorithm instead pushes the next Big Thing.

Very much recommended.

I had high expectations for this book (being a fan of the author's videos). It exceeded my expectations. It's an in depth analysis of not just recent slang, but the algorithmic pressures that spawned it.

The author really shines in the long format of a book. He takes his time to explore each topic, ruminating in depth. I'm excited for whatever Big project he tackles next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

There have been a few books that have caught my eye about the evolution of language on the internet, but Algospeak was offered on Netgalley so I picked this one up first. After I finished it, I was wondering if I would still be interested in other books on this topic. From looking at the synopsis of a similar book, Because Internet by Gretchen McCullough, the unique thing that stands out about Algospeak is that its primary focus is on short-form video on TikTok and Instagram, rather than taking a longer view back to the earlier days of the internet. So if you've already ready other internet language books, I think this one has a hook that is worth the time.

I have to admit I had a little bit of a mental meltdown when the author referenced being in middle school in the mid-2010s. That was just yesterday, right? I thought this book was written by a grown person?

Once my brain did some reluctant math, I came to really appreciate the perspective on this topic of someone who grew up when short-form video content started dominating social media. Rather than reading something written by an older outsider who is researching and trying to understand how this form of communication has shaped language, we have a guide who has been steeped in it and can share firsthand observations of how it has evolved. I thought that it was very valuable that he gave plenty of examples from his own social media content and was able to explain what he did with it and why.

On the downside, not all of the trends he referenced were explained, and my exposure to TikTok has primarily been through being a semi-regular viewer of After Midnight. I'm not online enough to recognize what some of these trends were without a sentence or two to describe them. He mentioned the Roman Empire a lot without explanation, I am guessing this is not a historical reference? But what is it?

I think the most useful thing that the author did was tying in the current trends in language to the overarching trends in language evolution that have always existed, and explaining how what we're seeing now isn't any different than the way language has always evolved. He did this fairly regularly throughout the book and kept tying each new point into this. It definitely took my original point of view that kids are really bizarre and need to put their phones down and go outside, and turned it around a bit to feeling like okay, we're just continuing on this path we've always been on.

I'm not sure I was the target audience for this book. It was very informative, but I didn't get a lot of the references.

Algospeak by Adam Aleksic is a sharp, engaging look at how the internet and algorithms are transforming language. Blending linguistic expertise with influencer insight, Aleksic explores how memes, emojis, and algorithm-driven slang are reshaping how we communicate. With original research and cultural savvy, this book is a must-read for anyone curious about the digital future of language.

As a boomer who is OK, I don’t spend a lot of time on social media platforms. Despite this shortcoming, the Internet has had powerful influences on me—both good and bad. Clearly, I feel them in fields as varied as finance, commerce, entertainment and politics. As a self-proclaimed “linguistic nerd” Aleksic seems to be the ideal to guide to improve my understanding of how social media may have already changed my life through the evolution of language. In his book, he makes a strong case for this change being massive with evidence for rapid alterations in accents, slang, grammar, speech patterns and even the symbols we use to communicate (e.g., emojis).

The idea that algorithms are running the show is interesting because most people who have spent even a minimal time online do indeed feel their influence. The power of Aleksic’s book is that it explains how algorithms work, what they are intended for and how they can be manipulated. Loads of new words and phrases come from these activities and they are profoundly changing how we communicate. What’s fascinating is how the Internet facilitates the rapid adoption of such changes. Based on communities and contexts, some memes spread while others fade and, remarkably, some escape the online environment entirely and become part of the broader culture.

Aleksic fills his book with a blizzard of facts taken from his own Internet archival research, original data, personal experience as a presence online, and interviews with his colleagues. He frames the structure of the book around specific topics, but these are so closely related that they often seem repetitive. Moreover, his narrative depends on a lot of jargon, which can be puzzling and obtuse. Despite these fairly minor flaws, the book is engaging, and Aleksic comes across as a thoughtful person who is excited by his material (excessively?) making it accessible through humor.

Not just a study on the future of language, but really a deep dive on the psychology behind social media itself (and specifically TikTok), this book is fascinating. It incorporates just the right amount of linguistic data, historical context, and funny TikTok slang.

The author has a great writing voice; his personality is as evident as his wealth of knowledge on these topics. I found this reading experience to be very engaging which isn’t always true of nonfiction books, even when I’m interested in the content.

I learned so much in this fairly short book that I’m not even sure how to summarize it. The writing is efficient by necessity, but there were many topics touched upon that were so interesting I would have loved to go even deeper (I would read an entire book about the Taylor Swift effect on social media behavior and in real life). I also found one section to be fascinating on how ASL is being impacted by social media. The transformation of language and behavior in our digital era is an emerging conversation that is quickly becoming relevant to absolutely everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book to read and review.

Thank you to @netgalley for this early copy!!

I am forever fascinated my language, social media changes and influence on our daily lives and all things in between so I knew this book would be one that I didn't want to pass up.

It did not disappoint! I was fascinated by Aleksic's look into the history of our language and where all these new and strange terms came from and social media's overall impact on the language that feels new at one point and almost overnight is accepted long term or discarded.

He gave language to lots of things I personally have noticed about how the algorithm has affected all of our lives and especially the way we speak and I really appreciated his insights.

Personally I feel like he was too optimistic about the current trends that we are seeing although I understand his view is more from a linguistic POV and not necessarily and overall impact on the health and well being of our current society.

Great read for anyone who is curious about internet culture and wanting to expand their understanding of how we got here and where we might go next!

There's a lot to like about Algospeak—Aleksic is an engaging writer who clearly loves language, and has a knack for choosing interesting examples to analyze (everything from sigma and skibidi to Roman Empire and girl dinner).

The chapters about incel slang and appropriation were particularly powerful—the analysis in these chapters is really strong. Aleksic does an excellent job tracing the history of terms that entered the mainstream, acknowledging the cultures where those words originated, and considering what it means when mainstream culture unknowingly adopts or appropriates language.

I also appreciated the observations in the book's final chapter about the ways that language change/innovation is almost always regarded as a problem, and how that's a cycle we repeat time and again throughout history. It's good context for a lot of the moral panic that arises over "kids these days" and their scary/bad/brainrotting slang.

Although I liked the book, the writing is also prone to unacknowledged contradictions. In places, Aleksic describes how videos/posts by "ugly," old, poor, queer, and Black people are suppressed by the algorithms. In other places, with equal confidence, we get the assertion that social media has democratized communication and created a truly level playing field for marginalized creators. Which is it?

Both of these statements cannot be true; does the algorithm punish some users while rewarding others, or does it create a radically new type of level playing field? I would argue that each statement is accurate to a greater or lesser extent and depending on context—but the book doesn't seem concerned with getting to that level of nuance. Perhaps that's part of the attention-grabbing language choices he describes using on Reddit and in his own videos, apparently at the cost of elements like internal consistency.

Another issue is with the definition of "social media," which at times seems to exclusively mean "TikTok" and at other times seems inclusive of older, more text-based forms of social media. This leads to some bizarre claims, like "Millennials are less accustomed to social media [than Gen Z and younger users]." If we're talking about TikTok and other short-form video apps, sure, I guess—but using the blanket term "social media" makes that sentence ridiculous. The lack of clarity around a key term in a book about linguistics is strange.

On the whole, Algospeak is a fun and interesting read. If you liked books like Because Internet, Wordslut, or Cultish, you'll probably enjoy this one, too.

I'm referring this title to our Broadcasting and Journalism teacher. Interesting take on how social media is changing our language and, therefore, our thought processes.
Part of this i had already assumed was happening; working with teens for a quarter of a century has enabled me to watch, in real time, exactly what this book covers.
I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who is chronically online, I really enjoyed reading this book and learning how social media is changing the ways we speak and the slang we use. Some of this was stuff I'd observed on my own but never thought about in-depth, and I'm happy to have the extra insight now. I've had a few other books on similar topics on my to-read list but never got around it reading them, so a big thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I responded to NetGalley's promotional e-mail, and learned (to my regret) that I'm the wrong audience. I keep up with slang but I don't care that much about the mechanics of its changes-- and barely enough to scan the first & last chapters.

I understand that the Web is accelerating the rise of new vocabulary & slang. Kudos to the author for getting an entire book out of the explanation.