Social media algorithms

The modern internet is loud, crowded, and constant—but it is also strangely quiet. Not because people have stopped speaking, but because they are carefully choosing what not to say. Across social media platforms, millions of users now speak in euphemisms, coded phrases, and deliberately awkward substitutions. Death becomes “unaliving.” Guns turn into “pew pews.” Sex is softened into “seggs.” Even referencing other platforms can feel risky. The language sounds childish, absurd, and often unintentionally comical. Yet beneath the humor lies something far more serious: a widespread belief that algorithms are listening—and punishing. This phenomenon, commonly known as algospeak, is reshaping … Read more