#algospeak

Okay, I used all caps there, not because I want to say "IF I SHOUT I AM CORRECT!!!!!" but because I have no other way of expressing my rage at stupid fucks on social media who think using this word is "Newspeak" (you can tell they didn't read 1984, the point of newspeak is to have NO words for things like death, not for people to come up with euphemisms for it)

As it turns out, Unalive is a euphemism for death, and it's a super useful one. It helps young kids talk about traumatic events to their therapists better [1] and of course the first thing adults do is punch down on these terms, by calling them offensive

You might say "But we already have other euphemisms!" The problem is that those euphemisms are so naturalised, they are no longer euphemisms, they are just another word for death.

Adam Aleksic, in Algospeak's introduction, states:

In many ways, [unalive] is nothing new. We have been euphemizing death as long as we’ve had language. The verb “to decease,” for example, comes from decessus, the Latin word for “departure,” which was introduced as a more agreeable alternative to the existing word for death, mors. Similarly, the verb “to die” was originally an Old Norse euphemism for the Old English verb sweltan, which was, in turn, likely also a euphemism for the even older English word diegan (related to “die” but then forgotten long enough to be reintroduced in a new form). [...] The middle-schoolers obviously don’t know this. They aren’t saying “unalive” to avoid algorithmic censorship. They do so because they see other people using it, and it genuinely does serve a very useful euphemistic function. [...] They simply hear it from content creators, or from their peers who are more active on social media, and then start using it because it’s a helpful, versatile word that can be applied in a variety of situations. This kind of positive feedback loop ensures that, with time, fewer and fewer people will know the story behind “unalive.”

Hosted by Hannah Sahota, this episode of Express Yourself! invites listeners into a thought-provoking exploration of how online rhetoric shapes the world we live in today. In her segment, “Empowerment and Equality,” Hannah breaks down how viral posts, influencers, and algorithm-driven platforms like TikTok and Instagram are no longer just sources of entertainment, but powerful forces that…