There are also written accents on social media: cat accounts want to sound "cat". The accent becomes part of identity, which is what I show to others with/through my accent. Fascinating topic
I was 60% into your book, and then you cited Chaucer and the last paragraph of a chapter made me well up in tears, and then suddenly it was all over! 😭 Thanks for the great book - I'm a 45-year-old historical linguist and I learned a lot! (Including the Chaucer quote, ironically!)
Amazing piece, compact yet very informative! Made me think about other states and countries where there is heavy censorship (on top of the algorithmic one) and people invent their own language to avoid both.
I just find it interesting that in all the talk about how impactful word choice is the word Adam chose to use was war. It's a level of erasure and denial that is harmful to the liberation of Palestinians.
If I have one personal style of performance for my wife, another for my kids, one for work in my role there, and yet and still different among my male friends what does that say about the —authentic— me? Is there such a personage in life or is it all just role switching for the situation in which we find ourselves at the moment?
Kind of agree, kind of don't — agree that authenticity in the normal sense doesn't exist, but I think it can exist in a less standard sense. For example, when you were talking about crafting content for the algorithm, I thought to myself "aha! so I'll have to be authentic and not go with what the algorithm wants", but then realized that would still be going with the algorithm, but just in the opposite direction. There's a parallel to this in Buddhism, which, yeah, the Middle Way, but the key is that it's not actually getting to some objective middle, which is how it's often understood, but rather discerning the point at which you are not moved by compulsion towards or against. In that sense, being authentic wouldn't be never changing your actions to fit the circumstance, but it would be a different internal relation to those changes — being free of the "compulsion" to code-switch but potentially still code-switching if it's appropriate. Kind of like being able to authentically engage in inauthenticity since that's still an authentic choice you're making. Similar to how someone who has recovered from OCD doesn't stop washing their hands entirely, they just are no longer compelled to do so and just wash them when it's reasonable.
Going to order your book, by the way! Been a fan of your IG reels for a while and happy to support — hope you make the bestseller lists!
"Nerdy yet brainrotted"? How dare..... Nah you right.
another great piece. congrats on the launch!!!
This is was so insightful! I guess I’d recognized this on a subconscious level but could never articulate it
Ikr
There are also written accents on social media: cat accounts want to sound "cat". The accent becomes part of identity, which is what I show to others with/through my accent. Fascinating topic
I was 60% into your book, and then you cited Chaucer and the last paragraph of a chapter made me well up in tears, and then suddenly it was all over! 😭 Thanks for the great book - I'm a 45-year-old historical linguist and I learned a lot! (Including the Chaucer quote, ironically!)
I bought a ticket to Wordhack! It sounds fun!
I just read the bit about 🍉 in the book this morning. Loving it so far!!
Amazing piece, compact yet very informative! Made me think about other states and countries where there is heavy censorship (on top of the algorithmic one) and people invent their own language to avoid both.
Looking forward to picking up the book at Politics and Prose this Friday!
when even the new york times is finally calling it a genocide and yet you’re still using the word war, unusual level of cowardice
I just find it interesting that in all the talk about how impactful word choice is the word Adam chose to use was war. It's a level of erasure and denial that is harmful to the liberation of Palestinians.
If I have one personal style of performance for my wife, another for my kids, one for work in my role there, and yet and still different among my male friends what does that say about the —authentic— me? Is there such a personage in life or is it all just role switching for the situation in which we find ourselves at the moment?
yeah i think authenticity is kind of made up
Kind of agree, kind of don't — agree that authenticity in the normal sense doesn't exist, but I think it can exist in a less standard sense. For example, when you were talking about crafting content for the algorithm, I thought to myself "aha! so I'll have to be authentic and not go with what the algorithm wants", but then realized that would still be going with the algorithm, but just in the opposite direction. There's a parallel to this in Buddhism, which, yeah, the Middle Way, but the key is that it's not actually getting to some objective middle, which is how it's often understood, but rather discerning the point at which you are not moved by compulsion towards or against. In that sense, being authentic wouldn't be never changing your actions to fit the circumstance, but it would be a different internal relation to those changes — being free of the "compulsion" to code-switch but potentially still code-switching if it's appropriate. Kind of like being able to authentically engage in inauthenticity since that's still an authentic choice you're making. Similar to how someone who has recovered from OCD doesn't stop washing their hands entirely, they just are no longer compelled to do so and just wash them when it's reasonable.
Going to order your book, by the way! Been a fan of your IG reels for a while and happy to support — hope you make the bestseller lists!