THEY’RE BRAINWASHING YOU! (& other secrets that made you click) - Etymology Nerd
In a Nutshell
"67" was dictionary.com's 2025 Word of the Year as a viral marketing ploy exploiting absurdity and algorithms for engagement, mirroring rage bait and slop, while TikTok dominates slang innovation through platform dialects, influencer accents (uptalk, vocal fry), and subcultures like manosphere/4chan terms signaling identity. Language evolves rapidly via youth-driven slang pipelines (AAVE → gay ballroom → mainstream), AI biases (e.g., "delve" spike), and memetics, but homogenizes under social media/AI constraints, prioritizing virality over truth—urging media literacy against manipulation in an attention economy where performance trumps authenticity. Etymology reveals identity truths (e.g., "muscle" from "little mouse"), with conlanging and animal signals highlighting language's ritualistic, human essence amid accelerating change.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
67 was voted word of the year in 2025 by dictionary.com. Dictionaries choose words of the year as a marketing ploy to sell more dictionaries. 67 references a viral trend started by basketball player Talon Kenny. Saying "67" aims for clips to go viral for personal gain. Dictionary.com, Connecticut house representative Bill Buckby, Gen Alpha kids like the 67 kid, and others cashed in on it. Clip farming is the future of online distribution.
67 is vacuous, designed to incite "what does that mean?" Absurdity has meaning, critiquing the information ecosystem. Its absurdity is its definition—a meta word, a knowing wink to the panopticon. Oxford's 2025 word was rage bait, also rage baiting for controversy to drive engagement and awareness of Oxford dictionaries. Slop describes sloppy language, prompting complaints about the state of language.
Language is a tool; nothing inherently good or bad in words. Negative associations from social media are cast onto language. Videos may be slop, but words aren't bad for your brain.
TikTok is the most powerful linguistic engine on Earth, shaping language more than anything. 2022 KnowYourMeme study: word origins shifted from 4chan, Reddit, Twitter to mostly TikTok and Twitter (still Twitter). TikTok fosters linguistic innovation from user interface and conversational feel. Echo chambers and algorithmic trends accelerate slang cycles.
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