Words catapulted to fame by the internet

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Staff member
I was thinking that there are words the internet gets its collective hands on and then overuses. What are some that come to mind?

Conflate: this is the latest one I see everywhere. It's like the world just learned this word, and now everyone uses it for everything.

Schadenfreude: this was the last one I noticed. Same deal. Suddenly everyone knew it and was using it everywhere.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Well, there has to be a distinction made here. Do you mean words that would be of somewhat common usage in normal language, such as the ones you noted in your original post, or do you include words that were pretty much birthed BY the internet, such as Dave pointed out.

I'd say the term Strawman Argument has been drawn out quite frequently on the internet, generally without an actual understanding of what it really means.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Bowielee said:
generally without an actual understanding of what it really means.
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This goes for Schadenfeude too, and actually most of those trendy-for-a-while-in-internet-discussion words. People somehow pick something up and think they found a magic way of shutting someone down with Impressive Words.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Celt Z said:
"Uber" was beaten into the ground by the internet, and seems to have fallen out of favor as of late.
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Noob keeps coming back around, though, inexplicably.

I assume we're also ignoring obvious words, like "Download." I still grind my teeth remembering an old 90s commercial for... I forget if it was AOL or Compuserve or Prodigy or some other early dialup service that touted one of its uses was to "download the internet!"
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

GasBandit said:
Noob keeps coming back around, though, inexplicably.

I assume we're also ignoring obvious words, like "Download." I still grind my teeth remembering an old 90s commercial for... I forget if it was AOL or Compuserve or Prodigy or some other early dialup service that touted one of its uses was to "download the internet!"
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youwouldntdownloadacar.jpg
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Epic - now means mediocre
Tweet - no longer the sounds of birds
Facebook - as a verb?!!
torrent - why doesn't it mean rain anymore?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Also, burn means to copy, not to destroy.

I remember an old college professor reacting with horror when I asked him if I could burn a copy of his CD.
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
Pwn - to defeat one completely

cis-scum - what self-loathing teenagers on Tumblr call other people who are exactly like them while pretending to not be like them at all
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Zappit said:
cis-scum - what self-loathing teenagers on Tumblr call other people who are exactly like them while pretending to not be like them at all
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I don't know if it brought it to fame - that is, I don't know that it's really used that much, but just 'cis' in any context other than "cisalpine."
 
Jax

Jax

Chad Sexington said:
I don't know if it brought it to fame - that is, I don't know that it's really used that much, but just 'cis' in any context other than "cisalpine."
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I've never come across the term "cis" or anything that starts with it before until last year, when every piece of American media threw it in my face.. It's probably a term that has existed for a long time, but was it mentioned this frequently say, five years ago?
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Jax said:
I've never come across the term "cis" or anything that starts with it before until last year, when every piece of American media threw it in my face.. It's probably a term that has existed for a long time, but was it mentioned this frequently say, five years ago?
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I usually only see it on tumblr, and then usually only as a slur.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

Zappit said:
cis-scum - what self-loathing teenagers on Tumblr call other people who are exactly like them while pretending to not be like them at all
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are you trying to say that transgendered people are just "pretending"?[DOUBLEPOST=1424516639,1424516149][/DOUBLEPOST]if we're gonna be passive aggressive:

Gamergate - a bunch of babies crying really loud and attacking women for playing in their sandbox

Meninism - men realized they're too fucking stupid to stop their patriarchy from fucking themselves over as well[DOUBLEPOST=1424517140][/DOUBLEPOST]
Jax said:
every piece of American media threw it in my face..
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what.

I highly doubt the word "cis" or "cisgendered" has been uttered more than a handful of times on any major news network. I missed the television shows throwing this in your face. I might be wrong, but I don't even think that word was used much/at all in Orange is the New Black (not a significant piece of American Media anyways, I bet fewer people watch it than much stuff on TV), which is the only even remotely mainstream show I can think of with a transgendered character that isn't a joke/constant target of transphobia. Has there been a slew of hit songs I've missed with "cis" thrown all over the place?

Now, granted, Dallas Buyer's Club was fairly major (although no one actually saw it) and won Oscars, but even with that I didn't notice people calling Jared Leto cisgendered to denote that he wasn't actually trans.

I think you're really making something out of absolutely nothing because of your cis-privilege tbh
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Charlie Don't Surf said:
are you trying to say that transgendered people are just "pretending"?
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I think theres a big difference between actual transgendered people and the "I'm a woman thats stuck in a man thats stuck in a woman's body" types that he's talking about.

Also, I doubt anyone here still takes gamergate seriously as a protest. In fact, I'd say "its about ethics in gaming journalism" has become a punchline at this point.
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

I feel good that I have no idea what cis means and have never encountered it.

Now back to Wizards of Waverly Place.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Charlie Don't Surf said:
are you trying to say that transgendered people are just "pretending"?
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Stop being intentionally dense. He's saying generally the people who say "cis-scum" are also cis. I've known many trans people in my life and none of them have ever been shitty to cis people. It's always been the other way around. The whole "cis-scum" thing comes from what I'm guessing is an earnest human need to hate something, and with all other forms of hate being prejudice, they choose to hate themselves. But that part's just a theory.

HCGLNS said:
I feel good that I have no idea what cis means and have never encountered it.
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Cis is short for cisgender, which means you're not transgender.
 
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