2B — Thursday, January 21, 2016 the b-side The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com “That’s literally me af.” “The party is gonna be turnt!” “Sarah Jessica Parker is bae.” “I’m so hungry rn.” “Yaaasss queen!” “LMAO, I’m dying!” “The club is hella lit tonight.” “Netflix and chill?” If you’ve heard any of the following phrases, you have either encountered a millennial or are one. In every generation, people are primarily defined by the period in which they live. And in each period, a variety of zeitgeists define the culture of the moment. They can range from fashion to film, music to art and TV to literature. But perhaps the most significant of them all is language, specifically the slang used by the generation of the time. For millennials — people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s — the current slang is notable for its hyper-condensed diction and common usage in social media. In addition to that, millennials have created their own language through texting, and in many cases embedded it into everyday talk. Even regularly used words, such as “literally,” “awkward” and “dying,” have completely new meanings within a millennial context. We don’t often realize it, but millennial slang and texting language play active roles in our daily lives, whether on our phones, on social media or in regular conversation. Slang Considering its mass appeal, slang has played an integral part of the culture in each generation. In the 1950s, an age swept up in conservative values, young people used “swell” as their very own colloquialism. “Cool” and “groovy” made their way into the counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s, eventually paving the way for words like “wicked” and “sweet” in the lively era of the ’80s and the grunge scene of the ’90s. The early ’00s contained a slew of slang like “redic,” “redonculous,” “whack,” “dope” and “sick” that spewed from the mouths of the youth. These words aimed to go against the traditional vernacular, as well as to give a collective personality to the people who uttered them. Nowadays, slang is just as creative and innovative as before, yet it’s changing at a breakneck speed. While movies, TV shows and music have become crucial in influencing slang both in the past and in the present, the increasing omnipresence of social media and social networking have provided millennials with platforms onto which we can constantly send and receive written and spoken messages. Through popular sources like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr and Vine, millennials have more access not only to new information, but also to the most up-to-date lingo. According to Julie Coleman, author of “The Life of Slang,” words are moving around the world within weeks and months because of social media. “It’s not necessarily that language is changing more quickly,” Coleman writes. “But technologies have developed and they allow the transmission of slang terms to pass from one group to another much more quickly.” Indeed, several of these technologies have determined the way in which millennials communicate with one another, especially with the invention of Twitter and its distinctive 140-character limit (at least for now). Several news websites, such as MTV.com and Buzzfeed, have adapted millennial slang into their headlines and articles (i.e. “21 Bold AF Hair Colors To Try In 2016”). Through the interconnected environment of the Internet, millennial slang has also been influenced by the reinvention of memes — humorous images, videos, GIFs or texts that are copied and spread online. Since the first well-known meme, the popular “Kilroy was here” graffiti in the 1940s, the “meme” has become a modern worldwide phenomenon on the Internet and other social media platforms. One of 2015’s most pervasive was a man screaming “What are those?!” at a police officer’s shoes. Memes may not necessarily be considered language, or even slang for that matter. However, through the technological advancement of the Internet, they do carry a cultural significance that has shaped the way millennials communicate and understand one another. In addition to social media and Internet memes, celebrities seem to hold some influence over the way in which language pervades the psyche of the millennial generation. Around 2010, rappers Soulja Boy and Lil B helped popularize the word “swag” in their songs “Pretty Boy Swag” and “Wonton Soup,” respectively. Throwback to middle school. In 2011, hip-hop artist and pop culture icon Drake publicized the acronym “YOLO” (which stands for “you only live once,” for those still living under a rock) in his rap anthem, “The Motto.” This past year, DJ Khaled, the famed music producer behind the ubiquitous pump-up jam “All I Do Is Win” and other hits, became a prominent source of entertainment, when he shared his own catch phrases on his Snapchat story. Whether he was riding on a jet ski in the dark or watering his plants, almost every one of DJ Khaled’s Snapchats had the producer saying, “Bless up,” “The key to success” or “They don’t want you to … ” to whomever was watching. Given his larger- than-life personality, 2.8 million Instagram followers and major popularity on Snapchat, DJ Khaled is among many of today’s celebrities who exude the spirit and mood of the millennial generation. Millennial slang may as well be a way in which we distinguish ourselves from other generations, but there does seem to be larger social implications within the language itself. “Young people are interested in expressing themselves in a distinctive way that makes them feel like they’re part of something,” said Communications Prof. Scott Walker Campbell, who is also a mobile communications researcher at the University. “The fact that millennials have a distinctive way of speaking and some distinctive lingo doesn’t make the generation distinctive, because my generation did the same thing.” As Campbell also points out, slang is simply a cultural trend that every generation has, yet it manifests and looks different within different generations. “It’s what generations do,” Campbell said. “They come together, have distinctive qualities, distinctive tastes in music, in fashion and also in language.” Perhaps slang is more than just a reflection of the current culture. Perhaps it’s a subtle rebellious response to our parent’s generation. But more importantly, the slang that’s used today can stem from a desire to be recognized, a drive to become viral and leave a cultural legacy behind. “There are new ways for individual people to have a voice and participate in a network and system of communication that is kind of unlimited,” Campbell said. “It’s not about money, but about being clever and entertaining and cool.” This leads to the idea that people who use slang online and on social media are accruing commercial value. In this age of virality, hashtags and instant celebrity, millennials want to be recognized and slang is a way in which they can do that, not just within the realm of social networking, but with the rest of society. Texting language In addition to slang, texting has developed into a language of its own for millennials. With the revolution of the modern cell phone in the early 2000s, texting has dramatically affected the communication millennials use in their everyday lives. “Millennials are certainly using their thumbs as much or more than we’ve seen in past generations,” Campbell said. Because texting involves quick, rapid-fire responses, a methodical process has been cultivated as a result, where commonly used words and phrases have become abbreviated. Some examples include “to be honest” changing to “tbh,” “very” into “v” and “okay” into the universally abhorred “k.” “There’s this idea that texting is chaos and that young people don’t know how to use grammar,” said English professor Anne Curzan. “But I think it’s very systematic.” As an educator and historian in the field of the English language, Curzan understands that older and younger people have very different perceptions on the way language is used today, specifically with changes in punctuation. An example she uses to demonstrate this idea to students and adults is the word “okay.” She writes the word three times — one by itself, one with a period and one with a dot-dot-dot. When shown to younger people, all three words have very different meanings, with “okay.” invoking a sense of seriousness and “okay … ” invoking a feeling of skepticism. For the older individuals observing the three words, they have no idea what the difference is. “If you actually ask prolific texters under the age of 30 how they are doing this, they can tell how to use the correct punctuation,” Curzan said. Millennials also pay very close attention to every single detail in our texts, so much in fact that we tend to nitpick at our words out of fear that the person on the other end of the conversation will take the message in the wrong way. “There’s this idea that younger people in this generation don’t care about language,” Curzan said. “I just don’t think there’s evidence for that. I talk with students, and they are very attentive with details. Spoken and written language is how we present ourselves to the world.” Curzan also believes that texting is “rapid and very much like a dialogue, but you can’t see the person most of the time.” However, as she mentions, texting has adapted to try to create some form of tone and emotional expression through acronyms like “lol” and, more recently, emojis. By using these shortened forms of written speech, millennials are better able to express themselves in new and interesting ways. Emojis have particularly grown in popularity ever since their international inclusion on the iPhone. They have revolutionized and enhanced textual communication by literally emoting the thoughts and feelings of the person behind the phone. People can choose from a diverse palette of emojis to express emotion, whether it’s using “the heart eyes” emoji to flirt or the “face with tears of joy” emoji to show a hysterical reaction to something. As CollegeHumor hilariously satirized in a 2014 video, titled “How We’ll All Talk in The Future,” emojis could potentially find their way into colloquial language. The clip depicts two young women having a conversation using emojis instead of words. In the context of the video, the emoji of the “face that looks like Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ ” apparently translates to “no way!” This probably won’t be the way people will actually speak in the future, but the video makes a compelling point about how powerful and prevalent emojis, and texting language in general, have become for millennials. Lingo as a linguistic merit Like text messaging, it’s easy to dismiss slang as a simple form of primitive speech. But for a while now, slang has been recognized as having linguistic merit, according to Curzan. “Slang is linguistic creativity at work,” she said. “Part of being human is being creative with language and slang is language at some of its most creative.” This seems to be the opinion of not only Curzan, but the linguistic community at large. Each year, the people behind Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society, the latter of which Curzan is part of, decide which words are the oddest, most innovative and most popular of the year. For most publications, the word of the year is chosen based on how frequently the word is used or how new the word is. Most recently, Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year technically wasn’t even a word; it was the “face with tears of joy” emoji. For Merriam- Webster, the word of the year was “-ism.” The American Dialect Society chose “they” (referring to the singular gender-neutral pronoun) as their WOTY. Other recent winners for WOTY have included “#blacklivesmatter,” “hashtag,” “app” and “tweet.” As informal as slang can be, it shapes culture both universally and exclusively. It gives a voice to generations and morphs constantly with the changing of technology and media. But most importantly, as linguist Stephen Pinker once said, language itself “is not so much a creator and shaper of human nature so much as a window onto human nature.” That’s pretty lit. MILLENNIAL LINGO From Page 1B MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW Blend together a unicorn, an artistically original J-Pop Britney Spears and the entire city of Tokyo — whatever image comes to mind, what- ever hybrid creature that produces, the result is Grimes. Maybe I’m living under a rock music- filled rock, but the first I ever heard of Grimes was two months ago upon the release of her critically acclaimed Art Angels. The unusual synthpop sound that Grimes has mas- tered is part of what makes her album so intriguing; noth- ing produced in 2015 is any- thing like Art Angels. Grimes is first and foremost an artist — being a musician is just a small part of who she is, and I think that really shows in her latest music video for “Kill V. Maim.” The first time I listened to “Kill V. Maim,” I envisioned a slightly more badass Princess Peach from Mario Kart zip- ping through a neon-lit Tokyo. It turns out that either I’m psy- chic or Grimes is really good at making you visualize her world the way she wants you to see it because the music video for “Kill V. Maim” is pretty much what I imagined two months ago. It’s fun. It’s artsy af. It’s unlike anything out there. Grimes and a sexy squad of posh punks take over our screens for four minutes and thirty-seven seconds in what appears to be a video game. The video cuts between shots of the outlandishly dressed characters dancing and zooming through what appears to be a neon- lit Tokyo (defs psychic) with Snapchat-esque drawings of little halos, hearts and other doodles fluttering in and out to further define the video as a Grimes pro- duction. From a purely visual stand- point, the “Kill V. Maim” music video is perfection; it has a way of sucking you into the world Grimes has created for us — the world that Grimes probably inhabits in her dreams. It’s a col- orful, outlandish, science fiction world full of possibilities. How- ever, the video seemingly lacks a story or purpose — at first I hated it for lack of substance. It’s only when you pay close attention to every detail that you realize how provocative it really is. I’m not going to disclose my interpretation of the video with you mainly because art is and should be viewed and understood differently by each individual — but also partly because I have no idea what the fuck I just watched. — Danielle Immerman 4AD A Kill V. Maim Grimes 4AD New cheese bar open By VANESSA WONG Daily Arts Writer Ann Arbor is becoming an even more creative and dynamic food community with uniquely structured restaurants — such as places that are known for reliable staples, pop-ups and other partnerships. They give local businesses space to try nontraditional ideas and offer an ever-changing blend of locally sourced meals for a new audience looking to try something new. Spencer, a wine and cheese bar/restaurant, has recently taken root in Ann Arbor with a focus on serving a menu that constantly changes with the seasons. Its airy, communal seating space creates a shared experience in which the diner trusts the restaurant to serve interesting and high quality meals rather than deliberately seek out a specific dish fulfilling his own cravings. Co-founder Steve Hall notes, “In the last couple of years there have been a lot of changes (in the Ann Arbor food community), like more creative and small things popping up … We are tying into a similar audience who has eaten everything in Ann Arbor and is looking into some new sorts of foods.” “The nice thing about changing all the time is that we’re not any kind of restaurant,” Hall continued. “There’s no one cuisine, so if we get an idea that’s like ‘hey, I’m really excited about doing some duck legs this week,’ Abby and I will be like, ‘oh, we’ll do them sort of like French Alsacian- German, so let’s do some mustard- braised cabbage and some roast turnips,’ and we’ll sort of run with that for a week.” Their cheese and charcuterie brings to light a lesser-known market in Ann Arbor. Hall laments in particular how underappreciated Zingerman’s is for their cheeses. “It’s not just sandwiches; I know that all students think it’s just only sandwiches,” he said. “Their cheeses are just some of the best in the country and you can taste all of them.” There are many considerations that go into the cheese-making process, Hall said. “You think about the animals and how they’re treated, you think about what those animals were eating, you think about the season of when they’re eating,” he said. “Is it winter and they’re eating dry hay or in the middle of summer when they’re eating fresh grasses and flowers and stuff? All that to the size of the production, the care of the cheesemaker, the age, how it’s been transported, all of it down the line. I think a lot of people don’t consider that and just think, ‘that cheese is $30 a pound, that’s a ridiculous price.’ Well, no, it’s awesome. It’s way underpriced because people really, really care for cheese.” One of the most important aspects of creating a dynamic culinary culture in Ann Arbor is for both diners and restaurateurs alike to be adventurous and keep an open mind. Being willing to mix new ingredients and flavors signals that innovation is welcome. For example, Hall urges people to try different types of cheeses. “I think a lot of people think that, ‘oh, I ate goat cheese on a salad once and I thought it was really weird and I didn’t like it, I therefore don’t like any goat cheese,” he said. Well that’s ridiculous. I don’t like American cheese but it doesn’t mean I don’t like any cow’s milk cheese.” Additionally, pop-ups and collaborative events between local businesses bring fresh takes to the way people traditionally interact with food. Before Spencer opened shop a few months ago, owners Hall and Abby Olitzky did multiple pop-up events: a weekly menu of dishes at Braun Court bar — wine, cheese and book pairings with Literati and a seasonal five- course dinner using ingredients from Zingerman’s. In addition to establishing local connections for the pair after moving to Ann Arbor from San Francisco, pop- ups offered space to take creative liberties and test new ideas that liven up the local food scene. Hall says pop-ups taught them about “what people are looking for, what do they respond well to, and how do we best get to that?” which helped identify what elements from San Francisco’s vibrant food community they could successfully implement in Ann Arbor. Both budding entrepreneurs and storied establishments can benefit from partnerships, as well as being willing to reach outward to the community to see what they are interested in while designing a menu. There are many other businesses in Ann Arbor that also play with unique restaurant structures to satisfy a modern audience that craves flexibility without sacrificing quality and health. Babo sheds the distinction between grocery store versus restaurant with a cheeky, “well, it’s both!” Like Spencer, Babo also has communal seating inside, but supplements it with separate tables outside, giving a range of options for solo munching, on-the- go meals or a catch-up between friends. The People’s Food Co-op, a communal-membership grocery store that has been a staple in Ann Arbor since 1971, features a similar hot bar and coffee shop concept in the adjoined Café Verde. This is an extension of their goal to provide reasonably priced, fresh, healthy food from local farmers, according to their website. They also offer many ways to get involved in the community through the food, with free classes about eating and health and events for co-op members. Though Ann Arbor restaurants are typically known for delivering reliable and well-made favorites, there is a growing audience out there looking for elements of novelty and creativity in how they engage with food. And with new businesses like Spencer and Babo opening their doors, or historic local fixtures like People’s Food Co-op and Zingerman’s participating in pop-ups or changing things up, it’s clear that there are places ready to deliver. COURTESY OF SPENCER Spencer, a wine and cheese bar, is new in Ann Arbor.