Have you ever walked down your child’s school corridor during break time or passed by a band of teens hanging out and happened to catch a snatch of their conversation? I ask myself, having been subject to this ordeal once too many times, “Am I the alien here, or are they!” Who says life today is easy! So when I say “young generation”, I am promptly asked “which generation?”. So there’s Zee, then Alpha and now a Beta!! Well, the Greeks must have done something right to win over today’s youth!! The line between Gen Z and Gen Alpha is somewhat blurred and the Beta guys are yet to be born, but have already been branded! They all are well segregated, a cultural line drawn and the gen above tells the gen below, “Bro! What’s this language you use!!”. Huh! And we, the settled-in-life GenX, hitherto proud of the English we mastered all through life, gape at them in awe, like being stranded on an island with humans from the future, chatting away in a strange lingo!! And as I even today tend to compare ‘my’ English with ‘his’, I am reminded by my teen son, “No one talks like that any more!” Ahh well, good old Mr. Wren and Mr. Martin, what say, eh!?
So you thought you belonged to an evolved class, perhaps even besotted to an intellectual berth, taking pleasure in the finer aspects of literature, expressing delight at the exotic (read, incomprehensible) art, immersing in the musical melodies spanning the globe! There’s this innate inner pride we, the Gen X, display ever so subtly! We allow ourselves the luxury of chipping in a word here, a nod there, an exchange of knowing smiles in a crowd. Through our body language, our apparent finesse and our carefully chosen select class of social buddies, we speak the language of the educated! In simple words, we say, “I know!” or “ikr!” – thats, “I know, right!” for the uninitiated!
Welcome to the sequence of generations who succeeded us. We’ve welcomed them in a world, generous in insincerity, replete in falsity of expressions vs. reality (read, Facebook show of ‘best-life-lived’) and a world filled with adults who live to earn a lot (and die rich), beguiled by materialistic goodies. This brand of youngsters, typically the much-dreaded army branded ‘teenagers’, one fine morning decided that this isn’t what they believe in. That this is all fake, kinda crap and well, not their ‘thingy’ at all; so ‘just dip”, they say! Hence followed the birth of linguistic shibboleths. Segregation basis caste or religion, ethnicity or skin colour, racial or cultural divides is so passe, its cringe! Welcome to a brotherhood bonded by an identity defined by language, where no Longman, nor Oxford can ever come to your rescue! This rebellious rise of the invincible lingo refuses to conform to the widely-acknowledged and ruling English, you and I are so proud of!
So why this abrupt change in norms by a generation which defies and disbands almost every social etiquette we took so long to build? Let’s give it to these young ones…they are brave enough to dispel the set norms of communication, ready to disrupt all our social niceties, more often than not adorned in a thick veil of falsities. Their brand of talk, with their friends and adults alike, has effectively punched a gaping hole into the glimmering exterior of the world we inhabit today. No, they haven’t done this to be ‘cool’. They have done this subconsciously, to connect. This is almost like a call to revolution! ‘Dispel the Norms. Build a New World.’ Unknowingly, they’ve set the stage for some form of equality to seep in. So next time, you are addressed by a teen with, “Bro! No, that’s not the way!”, do not be angry; do not think the kid is being impolite. Be happy if you are ever complimented with a, “This is bad!”…ah they mean, “This is so good!” and well, walk away if you hear, “Dip”. Some young lad is trying to help you by saying, “Enough, now stop, will you?” “Stop capping” sounds way less rude than someone saying on-the-face, “Stop lying!”. But the one thing you must never be, never say, never show is ‘Cringe’. Save yourself that massive embarrassment, is what this means! A big-time faux-pas, is how I would translate. Act out weird as per their standards and you earn the thorn-studded crown of being an Ohio. Rather, have ‘Rizz’, the great asset to charm the audience! While you strive to elevate your level to be the GOAT, the ‘greatest of all time’, beware of being a skibidi – -not good not good, this means something real bad! This gen will push the limits of the patience and the grey matter we so boast of! And passing by this rebellious gang, if you hear the term Gyatt, know it’s not meant for you! Gyatt, possibly short-term for goddamn, is reserved to compliment girls, especially those with gifted physical assets! A rather safe comment to earn is a ‘Sigma’, in our era, what’s called cool. But whatever you do, do not be an outdated, unfashionable, uncool guy or you run the risk of being branded a ‘cheugy’! If a band of teens calls you a ‘Looksmaz Mogger’, be super happy; you’ve just been complimented on your looks. If you hear a ‘Beta’, scoot for life before you get insulted further; they just called you weak!
So the Mrs. and the Mr. s of the Gen named X, while no one dares cross us away yet, let’s switch on that ‘upload now’ button and get ready to learn a new lingo! And bruh, this sure will help you communicate with the young gen. X or no X, beware, the Zee, the Alphas, the Beta’s are here to rule over X! Might as well begin to comprehend their lingo, to save us from being a ‘Beta’!! We do wanna be your Sigma, guys!