Our viral vocabulary - Harvard Gazette

"Fascinated by words, Adam Aleksic '23 created a blog to write about their origins when he was in ninth grade. After graduating from Harvard with a concentration in linguistics and government, he became known online as the Etymology Nerd, a self-described influencer who has more than 3 million followers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube combined. In an edited interview, Aleksic talks about his recently published book, "Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language," which explores algorithms' influences on language and culture."

"For example, with the arrival of writing, there was this big shift away from us telling stories with rhyme and meter. Plato said that writing was going to make us worse at remembering things. With the printing press, information is diffused more quickly, and more people have the ability to be literate, but there are still gatekeepers, which is affecting who gets to tell the story."

Social media algorithms centralize content distribution through personalized recommendation feeds and thereby reshape communication practices. Prior technological shifts—writing, the printing press, and the internet—each altered how stories are told, who controls dissemination, and cognitive habits. Writing reduced reliance on oral mnemonic devices; the printing press sped diffusion but preserved gatekeepers; the internet removed many gatekeepers. The late-2010s centralization of platforms amplified algorithmic power, making platform priorities decisive in organizing language use. Algorithms influence word choice, stylistic conventions, and cultural transmission by promoting content formats and expressions that align with recommendation systems.

Read at Harvard Gazette