Chat, Are We Cooked? How Language Has Become the New Metric of Virality | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Social media algorithms are reshaping language by turning words into signals of virality. Linguist Adam Aleksic argues that platforms influence not only how people speak, but also how they understand identity, culture, and one another. While this linguistic creativity is not inherently harmful, users should recognize how algorithms can strip terms from their original contexts and spread ideological ideas.

Products Shape Communication and Identity

• Interfaces communicate values as well as functionality, reflecting Marshall McLuhan’s idea that “the medium is the message.”
• Tinder’s swiping system commoditizes dating and reinforces associations such as “right” being positive and “left” being negative.
• Dating platforms encourage users to perform and categorize themselves according to available features:
  • Hinge prompts users to present a structured story.
  • Grindr encourages identity categories such as “bear” or “twink.”
• These design choices can affect both outward self-expression and people’s internal understanding of identity.

Algorithms Accelerate Linguistic Change

• Online communities create slang, while recommendation algorithms expose it to much larger audiences.
• This produces “context collapse”: users encounter words outside the communities and cultural settings where they originated.
• Platform metadata now includes every word users write or say, not just hashtags, making language itself a mechanism for discovering and promoting content.
• Influencers can popularize expressions whose origins their audiences may not recognize.

From Ballroom Slang to Mainstream Vocabulary

• Terms such as “slay,” “serve,” “queen,” “cooked,” “ate,” “bussin’,” and “it’s giving” have roots in African American and queer ballroom culture.
• Historically, slang spread gradually through connected social groups; algorithms now accelerate that process dramatically.
• As words become mainstream, their original connotations may weaken or change.
• Aleksic emphasizes the importance of understanding these origins rather than treating viral slang as context-free vocabulary.

Memes as Cultural and Ideological Vehicles

• Aleksic is less concerned with linguistic change itself than with the ideas carried by newly popular terms.
• Expressions from online subcultures, including incel communities, can enter mainstream usage through meme circulation.
• Terms such as “looksmaxxing” and “-pilled” may spread because memes make unfamiliar or troubling ideas more accessible.
• Memes can effectively “Trojan-horse” concepts into broader culture, though critical awareness can reduce their potential harm.

Users should enjoy the flexibility and creativity of evolving language while remaining attentive to where viral terms come from, what meanings they lose, and which beliefs they may carry into the mainstream.