Not to pry, but how old is “old”?

I’m 42, and definitely don’t feel old yet - at least, my mind doesn’t feel old. My body is beginning to show me what’s it going to be like.

I don’t think my generation is nearly as out of touch with youth and niche culture as our parents were. While there are definitely examples of slang that surprise me and for which I’ve not quite nailed down the colloquial usage, it’s extremely rare that I can’t infer the meaning from context.

For that matter, I’ve adopted some of it where it makes sense. “-maxxing” is handy, and conveys more than “optimize for”; I might say I’m “tokenmaxxing” when I’m talking about intentionally using more costly inference than necessary because I’m not the one paying for it and the time necessary to optimize utilization isn’t worth it to me as a result. Basically implicitly recognizing that what I’m doing is ridiculous when viewed from the outside.

The only slang I can think of that I’ve not fully understood is “type shit”. I get that it usually used as an affirmation of someone else’s statement - but not always. I think its exact semantics are likely still in flux, because I’ve heard it used to mean all kinds of unrelated things depending on tone.

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Thinking about this, I wonder if it’s not a continuation of the same processes that lead to the disappearance of many regional accents. That’s generally accepted to be happening, and caused by the rise of mass media (radio, TV, Internet).

Maybe the Internet (social media in particular) has lumped everyone together in one giant community, and as a result slang no longer has time to solidly meaning in a niche group before reaching the general public.

Nah you just know a young person or have found your way into an incel information stream. It doesn't mean you represent a large population.

Nah it kept it's meaning, just spread more. If anything, the level of abstraction grew. "Mogged' used to be a standalone phrase, but now it's always "___mogged".

Yep thanks to the man-o-sphere incel culture has become mainstream for young men and boys

I think part of it is that people use it ironically to make fun of incel culture but then it gets absorbed into our language unironically. Similar to how AAVE ends up in mainstream language because non-Black people use it ironically (more to make fun of themselves), but then it ends up becoming an everyday part of the language.