John Ray Week 11 - Social Media's Power Over Our Vocabulary
Rizz. How did this word become so popular? Through constant usage in social media content.
Rizz, according to various online sources, means attractiveness, charm, or skill in flirtation to easily attract people, deriving from the word charisma. The rise of the word “rizz” is a prime example of how social media can shape our vocabulary. Constant use of it in social media has caused people to naturally adopt the word and use it in their daily life; Your friend is talking to their crush? "That’s rizz." Your friend just got asked out? "That’s rizz." The word even developed into becoming different parts of speech. It can be used as a verb: “Go rizz them up.” And as an adjective: “He has a crazy rizz face”. The usage of the word has become so common and widespread that even Merriam-Webster added it into its dictionary. The word rizz has made its way into most teenagers' vocabulary. I know it has for me.
Some words have even developed different meanings due to social media. Ohio, for example, used to be just the name of a state on the east coast of the US. But now, when people hear “Ohio” they can’t help but laugh and think about the memes that portrayed Ohio as this extremely horrific place.
These words have gained popularity and new meanings because of how often they are used in social media. The Ohio memes were extremely popular for a long period of time, and the word rizz is still relevant and even keeps getting used in many different ways. My favorite new way is when someone is called a “rizzly bear.” Social media has definitely changed many peoples vocabularies, and I am pretty excited to see what new word will have the same effect as the word rizz.
Hi John Ray! I really like how you approached social media's vocabulary. It is quite strange yet impressive how certain words are created because of social media. It definitely adds more to social media as a whole because of its still developing vocabulary. It also shows how we have also developed. An example would be looking back at older memes or words that we as a community do not find as funny as we did before. I feel that these newer terms are gonna have the same effect like the previous ones since social media is continuously developing like we are. This does not mean that older memes will never be funny again but they are more likely to be known to as "classics" if nothing more. Thank you for sharing your blog!
ReplyDeleteHello! I understand what you mean by new Gen Z terms getting integrated into modern-day speech even without us realizing it. I have heard rizz way too often and I don’t even think that I was ever told the definition of the word. I just figured out what it meant after so many references to it and a bunch of context clues. Just in freshman year, I spoke traditionally and even now I tend to rely on old phrases and wordages. But at the same time going into sophomore and junior year I realized that I have been infected with the gen z terminology. For me the word is slay. Although, I can’t distinguish the specific time that I began to rely on the word, it began last year when I teased my friend for always saying slay. It started off ironic, and now I literally can not stop! Even without thinking about it, it is just the perfect filler word for every situation. You are having a bad day? Slay! You did well on a test? Slay! The world is ending? OMG Slay! I don’t even know what it means anymore yet I have been consumed by the word. It scares me a little even.
ReplyDeleteHi John, your blog is definitely right in that the vocabulary we use is based on social media. I mean the word "bro" that I use in practically every other sentence originated from social media and hearing other people use it. Throughout the years of my life, the vocabulary I use has changed depending on what is trending on social media. This happens unknowingly as our brains just tend to reuse words that we are used to hearing. That is why when a word is not used as much anymore in modern day media, people tend to forget it or stop using it. Modern day slang is always changing and social media is a big part of it. Our word usage will stay changing for as long as social media is active. Overall, your blog was relatable and understandable as I enjoyed reading and responding to it.
ReplyDeleteI hear these words and phrases often as well. I think all of these terms are just proof of our evolution and humor. Generation Z's idea of humor, while convoluted, represents some aspects of slapstick comedy. Our generation simply finds laughs in terminology that makes absolutely no sense. It offers a sense of community that differentiates our humor from other generations. While I feel this terminology is not as funny as it once was, I catch myself using it sometimes. My take on this topic is our humor will simply overcome this phase, just as we have changed our humor during our entire lives. I remember in 2016, I found memes on YouTube funny that I would not even crack a smile at now. This evolving terminology holds some power over us, but I don't think it holds as much power as you think it does.
ReplyDeleteHello John Ray. Your hook was attractive to me since I love it when pieces open with an easily digestible and comical word like rizz. I loved how you took this word to trap the reader into ruminating how influential social media is. The fact that I understood all the different ways to use the word, supported your claim of how prevalent the media is and their control over people. If the use of apps like Youtube or TikTok is able to influence our everyday language then they also control how our society works. In our school, I would bet that everyone knows the word rizz, with few knowing what it means. I use this word myself by calling myself the Rizzler to make my friends laugh. This was a wonderful way to introduce issues that come from being subjected to what we see. Like you mentioned, the state of Ohio, thanks to the memes, is now seen to outsiders as an "extremely horrific place." Works like memes are consumed only by the younger generation, this leads to them growing up believing these false news. This can lead to dangerous consequences of using fake facts to lead one's life. The only way we can fix this issue is to double check our facts and welcome opposing ideas- to always take things with a grain of salt. Thank you for writing.
ReplyDeleteHi John Ray! I really liked your topic because it is something that is almost subconscious. Words like "rizz" are so integrated in my vocabulary I often forget that these are not formal English, and that I should drop such terms in formal conversation, like with teachers. The way these words form--like how "rizz" came from charisma-- represents a rapid form of language development, instead of something seen over decades. However, these words make me wonder whether they will one day be formal English, as other words we use today were once deemed informal. Additionally, I wonder if they will carry the same connotation as they do now. I liked how you mentioned Ohio being associated with such a negative connotation, and as someone born in Ohio, I have learned to keep that as a secret to myself to avoid being made fun of. I think it is also important to realize how social media has caused mass globalization and the evolution of language, something that took decades in the past. I wrote my blog a couple of weeks ago about the effects of social media and I think it is important to realize how social media language differs so much from the way we speak in real life. Thank you for sharing!
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