I’ve been dancing around this idea of language for a couple of weeks now, and after last week’s piece that featured a bobbing cat on TikTok I felt like it would be fair to explore my thoughts a little bit more.
This may sound dumb, but that’s why I chose to write it – so you can’t interrupt me.
Basically…
Language is alive
Language is one tool we use to communicate ideas with one another. We use language in person to talk to one another, but we also fit different languages into places all along the internet to communicate with each other. Mediums are expanding, formats are changing. How we communicate with one another is changing rapidly. With how we communicate constantly changing, so is the tool that we use to communicate.
At their core, words are memes. We assign a sound to a letter, combine letters, then point at an object and attach a meaning. This is that. It’s a package.
GIFs, more traditionally, are memes. Internet hieroglyphs. They capture and represent nuanced emotions or meanings. Honestly, they help get my thoughts across better than the words I have at my disposal. There is so much nuance in modern discourse that yesterday’s words might fall flat when a simple salute emoji will do the trick.
Of course, then we have the general use of memes, as images that can be remixed hundreds of times with slight caption tweaks to reference something relevant or specific to a group.
These are always changing – just like the platforms we use them on. Twitter changed how we got our thoughts out. Then within that, threadboi’s and shitposters changed how we looked at the platform.
Instagram changed how we documented our lives. Then over time how we documented our lives on there changed.
TikTok has done the same. A completely new language for people to communicate with each other exists on that platform, or partly on that platform and generally across the internet for younger generations.
Don’t believe me?
A couple years ago my cousin, who is a few years younger than me, showed me a TikTok that she thought was hilarious. I was maybe 24, not yet ready to accept that I was completely out of touch already. I didn’t know when to laugh. Or what to laugh at. The structure of the video was new. The jokes were new. It was all different. The language had changed. Even at 26 I know I’m not the only one who feels like they can’t keep up.
(Side note: Honestly makes me think social media is going to replace fast food as the first job of high schoolers everywhere. Crank out some TikToks for a few years then on you go to college, with a nice little social following.)
Oracle Bones
I recently read a book called Oracle Bones, which followed a journalist through China at the turn of the century. The journalist explored the generations of Chinese that were experiencing the modernization of the country. Boom cities with promises of better jobs, remote villages with young people ready to fill them. This fight between tradition and modernity was carried throughout the book with history lessons from oracle bones. Oracle bones are artifacts from old societies that carry stories inscribed on turtle shells.
These Oracle Bones serve as the foundation of the Chinese alphabet. They were the initial tool used for people to communicate with each other, on paper (or shell). As the book progressed, the author explored the constraints that this alphabet presented. There simply aren’t enough memes on the original oracle bones to represent the ideas of modern China.
As the way that people communicated with each other changed, they needed a tool that did the same. There was a major discussion around modernizing the Chinese alphabet to account for the changes and adjust with the modern times. Ultimately, no updates to the alphabet were allowed by the Chinese government, atleast at the time the book was published. Regardless, that story is interesting.
Internet Language
All of these little pieces of content we’re pushing are part of our language. We can think of them as larger memes. It’s not just the content within that larger meme, it’s the format.
The blurry silhouette carousel with some food and friends are part of how we communicate with other users on Instagram now. We’re conveying something beyond that single filtered vacation photo now. That wasn’t how we communicated on the same platform just a few years ago.
Newsletters are changing how we digest media. One big story, commentary on a slighter smaller one, a few hot links. Add some sassy quips and a market update, then we’re on to tomorrow. The entire newsletter revolution is seven years old at best. The format for sharing news is changing.
There’s something about the attention span, the constant onslaught of stimulation, the absolute phone addiction, that is helping push this change in how we communicate. It’s like our heads are becoming Times Square and nobody can turn off the lights.
I think about this when I hear “back in my day” or “when we were kids.” Language is constantly changing, so how it was used in one place in time might not connect if used the same way today. Same as if we used used Instagram or Twitter the same way today as we did in 2012, it wouldn’t resonate.
I’ll leave it at that, but I hope the point gets across. Language as a way to communicate is always changing. New words, formats, styles. Language is alive.
I THINK THIS IS COOL
I mean no hyperbole when I say this… This show slaps.
In the digital ad world there’s a long discussion about attribution. How to track which part of the journey motivated your journey to “convert” with a purchase or sign up. It’s funny, because I definitely saw this on someone’s Instagram story not too long ago. I heard someone mention it on a podcast. I even flipped through a few pages of the book last week. So, I’m not quite sure how to attribute the interest here, but I’m glad I turned it on.
My girlfriend and I flew through six episodes last weekend. A fun era. Love, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll. Killer characters.
There is a fun meta play that Amazon is leaning in to here as well, with the songs from the show available on Spotify. Similar to what The Boys are doing with the Vought Twitter account, this added layer makes things feel a little more real. A little more fun to engage and dive in with the show.
That’s all for this week. If you made it through 1,000 words this time, thank you. More next week!