I spent a weekend with Gen Alpha. I needed a translator

I spent a weekend with Gen Alpha. I needed a translator.

Key points

• The term was popularized by streamer Kai Cenat around February 2023, according to Merriam-Webster.
• Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners.
• "When I remember my siblings are slowly reaching unc status, " 19-year-old TikToker Dasha Sprinkle wrote over an audio regarding turning 35.
• Gen Alpha's slang can feel like an entirely different variant of the English language, shaped by TikTok, memes and Twitch streamers.
• Online, the phrase is sometimes accompanied by AI-generated photos of Wallace from "Wallace and Gromit" using the symbol.

In practice, a new social media trend focuses on Generation Alpha explaining their complicated slang to their parents.

As a youth mental health reporter, I'd like to think that I'm up to date with what young individuals are saying.

Then I spent a weekend volunteering with elementary, middle and high schoolers at a youth camp.

I heard "huzz, " "larping" and "fries." One counselor was designated "unc." When I watched kids throw up an OK-hand gesture and say "fairs, " I had to stop to ask what all of these words meant.

Here are some of the Gen Alpha slang terms you're probable to hear these days, and what they actually mean. Fairs + OK hand signal.

"Fairs" is a short way of saying "fair enough." What originated as British slang spread on TikTok as a way to acknowledge something as being a valid answer or an understandable result of a situation.

I remember one time, like, I told a girl I liked her, and she said 'ew' and I was like 'fairs, ' TikToker @thakiddsam jokingly explained in a June video.

Throughout the weekend, the kids I was with applied the saying in conjunction with an OK hand symbol produced with the thumb and index finger, in reference to the 👌 emoji. Online, the phrase is sometimes accompanied by AI-generated photos of Wallace from "Wallace and Gromit" using the symbol.

More: What is 'ghost posting'? Why Gen Z is hiding their Instagram posts.

LARPing, or live-action role-playing, might conjure up visions of Dungeons & Dragons costumes and renaissance fairs. But young individuals are repurposing the word "larping" to call out someone they think is inauthentic.

Going to a fitness class just for the photos is larping being a pilates girl. A summer internship is larping a corporate 9-to-5. Coming into Manhattan from Long Island for the day is larping New York City. The word is another way to say poser, try-hard or fraud.

"It's someone who is performative in the way that they're dressing or acting or doing something, and it's not actually authentic to who they are as an individual, " Morgan Hurlock of Philadelphia previously informed USA TODAY. "It's almost like you're calling someone out."

One camper informed me that her boyfriend was "huzz, " to which a counselor jokingly replied, "you're too young to have a husband!"

Despite how the word sounds, it's not short for marriage, the kids explained. The term refers to a crush or romantic partner. As a distorted spelling of the word "hoes, " but the word has taken on a more general employ, it originally was a derogatory way to refer to a group of women.

"The typa stuff that only happens to me at school infront of the huzz, " one TikTok joked over a compilation of embarrassing moments.

For context, the term was popularized by streamer Kai Cenat around February 2023, according to Merriam-Webster.

If you haven't recognized any of the words on this list yet, you might be Unc.

Meanwhile, the word, shorthand for "uncle, " is a term for someone perceived as out of touch or old, not unlike "Boomer." The word originated within African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and grew more popular through employ in rap and hip hop music, according to Merriam-Webster.

In practice, the kids at camp rapidly identified an obvious candidate for the word in a 50-something-year-old volunteer in our group. This person they deemed "camp dad." As they rejoiced in teaching him slang throughout the weekend, it was clear that "unc" could be a term of endearment.

As the cut off seems to be getting younger by the day, but you don't have to be anywhere near your 50s to start facing the unc allegations.

Perhaps the most surprising new slang term I heard that weekend was "fries."

I was familiar with the "Just put the fries in the bag" meme, an online insult that insinuates that the person should stop talking and obtain back to a fast-food job.

But kids have shortened the phrase to simply saying "fries" as a quick way to tell someone to wrap it up or obtain to the point.

Notably, the slang originated with a 2022 Facebook post from user Andre Jamar Milburn, reading, "I AINT SEEN YOU SINCE HIGHSCHOOL, " with his response "JUST PUT THE KETCHUP IN MY BAG BRO 🤣🤣, " according to knowyourmeme.com, and eventually went onto incorporate fries instead of ketchup.

Online, the shorthand may be accompanied by the fries and peace sign emoji 🍟✌️.

More: Gen Z pout, 'influencer voice' and the horror of 'looking cringe'. What does this slang say regarding young residents?

Words like "unc" and "fries" might sound like nonsense, but this slang category reveals the way young people are constantly trying to determine what's "cringe, " what's authentic and what's trying too hard. Social slang has existed in every generation, but the virality and speed of the internet have accelerated the way Gen Z and Gen Alpha's slang spreads and evolves.

Much of young people's slang today revolves around social judgement, whether it's the "larping" calling out posers for being performative or "unc" to indicate someone as being out of touch.

We learn about ourselves and where we stand in the world only from the reactions and responses we get from others, Don Grant, a media psychologist who is the National Adviser of Healthy Device Management for Newport Healthcare, previously informed USA TODAY. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, that public sphere is online. They grew up with everything online becoming their social currency and the litmus of who they are.

Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at [email protected] and @rachelleighhale on X. SMS Facebook Twitter Email. Share your feedback to support improve our site! Share your feedback to support improve our site!

Taken together, the developments around I spent a weekend with Gen Alpha. I needed a translator point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.