Dating, work & life

● Aliven.✎ 3

Matcha Guy

The performative male's drink of choice, as a whole identity — the matcha guy — with a tote, a Labubu and a paperback, as the summer 2025 shorthand for a man whose taste was a strategy. The record's entry for the green tea as a character, and for the cafés that ran out.

▸ 2025peak 2025still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Bumble Celibacy Ad

A dating app's billboards telling women 'a vow of celibacy is not the answer', which the internet read as a company scolding its own customers for not using it, and which was withdrawn with an apology within days. The record's entry for a campaign that became a case study.

▸ 2024peak 2024†2024

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Clavicular

A looksmaxxing personality named for his collarbones, who rated faces, coined terms and became the movement's most visible face until February 2026, when he stood next to a fraternity boy at a party and lost. The record's entry for the mogger mogged.

▸ 2024peak 2025still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Dry Dating

Dating without alcohol — a coffee, a walk, a climbing wall — as a trend among people who found that every date was a bar and every bar was a mistake. Named in 2024 and, the record notes, mostly a rebrand of the afternoon.

▸ 2024peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Heightmaxxing

Attempting to get taller — insoles, posture, a surgery that breaks the legs — as a looksmaxxing goal, and the joke about it: 'heightmaxxing' as a caption for standing on a kerb. The record's entry for the most expensive -maxxing.

▸ 2024peak 2024still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Ozempic Santa

The joke, in December 2024, that Santa had lost weight — a slim Father Christmas in shop windows and adverts, read by the internet as a sign of the injectable era reaching the North Pole. The record's entry for a seasonal figure as a diet commentary.

▸ 2024peak 2024†2024

● Aliven.✎ 3

Softmaxxing

Improving your appearance by ordinary means — a haircut, skincare, the gym, sleep — as opposed to hardmaxxing, which is surgery. The looksmaxxing term that made 'get a haircut' sound like a protocol. The record's entry for the sensible half of an insensible movement.

▸ 2024peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

5 to 9 Before 9 to 5

The video genre of doing a full day — gym, skincare, breakfast, a walk — between five and nine in the morning, before work, and posting it as a triumph. A 2023 trend among people who were, by their own account, very tired. The record's entry for the pre-day as a day.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Alex Hormozi

A business influencer with a nose ring, a beard, and a specific format — big captions, a stare, a lesson about offers — who became the face of 2023–24's business internet and the template for a thousand imitators with the same captions. The record's entry for the style, which is filed as a meme.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Beige Flag Behaviour

A partner's harmless oddity, posted as a 'beige flag' — he narrates the dog's thoughts, she says 'okey dokey' — as the 2023 genre of affectionate complaint. The record has 'beige flag'; this is the behaviour, which was, in every video, the reason they were together.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Body Count Discourse

The 2023 obsession, on a certain kind of podcast, with how many people a woman had slept with, and the internet's response, which ranged from parody to exhaustion. The record's entry for a question that became a genre, filed without answering it.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Bonesmashing

Hitting your own face with a hammer or a bottle to encourage bone growth — a looksmaxxing 'technique' that was mostly a joke on the forums and became a moral panic when it reached TikTok. The record's entry for the trend that was more talked about than done, one hopes.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Boyfriend Air

The theory that the air in a boyfriend's flat makes your skin worse and your hair flat — 'boyfriend air' — which was a joke, then a discourse, then a skincare-brand campaign, in the space of a summer. The record's entry for atmosphere as a diagnosis.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Canthal Tilt

The angle of the corners of the eyes — positive is attractive, negative is not, according to a corner of the internet with a protractor. The looksmaxxing term that escaped the forums in 2023 and made a generation check their eyes in the mirror. The record's entry for the angle.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Date-Me Doc

A Google Doc — several pages, headings, a section on dealbreakers — shared as a dating profile by people who found the apps too short. A 2023 phenomenon from the Bay Area, and the record's entry for the CV as a love letter.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Girlfriend Effect

The observable improvement in a man's appearance after he gets a girlfriend — the haircut, the skincare, the trousers that fit — posted as before-and-afters by the girlfriends. The record's entry for the makeover as evidence.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Hunter Eyes

Deep-set, hooded eyes with a positive tilt — the looksmaxxing ideal, as opposed to 'prey eyes' — and the reason a lot of teenage boys squinted in photos in 2024. The record's entry for the eye as a status.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Roman Empire (Thinking About)

'How often do you think about the Roman Empire?' — the September 2023 question that revealed men think about it weekly, and 'my Roman Empire' as the phrase for anything you cannot stop thinking about. The record's entry for the empire as a personality test.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Sam Sulek

A very large college student filming long, calm gym vlogs from his car, whose size, diet and monologues made him the gym internet's main character of 2023–24 and the subject of every 'is he natural' debate. The record's entry for the vlog as a monument.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Situationship Anniversary

The date on which a non-relationship began, marked ironically by one party — 'happy one year of not knowing what we are' — as the 2023–24 joke about the situationship's length. The record has 'situationship'; this is the milestone, which nobody should have reached.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Stay-at-Home Girlfriend

A woman whose partner works while she does the house, the gym and a video about it — the housewife without the marriage — as a 2023 TikTok persona that produced a lot of discourse about labour and a few about the boyfriend. The record's entry for the tradwife's unmarried cousin.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Tren Twins

Two enormous twin brothers who shouted, lifted and ate on camera, and whose nickname referenced a steroid they were unusually open about. The gym internet's loudest act of 2023, and the record's entry for a channel named after a drug.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Whatever Podcast

A podcast in which a host and a panel of young women argue about body counts, standards and who pays, clipped into a thousand TikToks in 2023–24 and the source of the year's most-mocked dating takes. The record's entry for a debate show as a meme factory.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Zombieing

A ghost who comes back — the person who disappeared for months and then texts 'hey stranger' as if nothing happened. Named in 2023 and, the record notes, describing behaviour as old as messaging.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Almond Mom

A mother who tells a hungry child to eat a few almonds — from a reality-television clip — as the name for a parent whose diet culture became their child's. A 2022 TikTok term that produced a lot of recognition and a few apologies. The record's entry for the almond as a diagnosis.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Corporate Girlie

A young woman with an office job, a lanyard, a matcha and a specific tone of ironic despair about meetings, as a TikTok persona of 2022–23. The girlboss's exhausted successor, and the record's entry for the cubicle as a character.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Hesidating

Dating without conviction because the world seems too uncertain to commit — hesitant dating — named by an app in 2022 and true of most people in 2022. The record's entry for ambivalence with a portmanteau.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Liver King

A shirtless man eating raw organs and preaching nine 'ancestral tenets', who claimed his physique was natural until leaked emails in December 2022 showed a large monthly steroid bill. The record's entry for the guru undone by his own inbox.

▸ 2022peak 2022†2022

● Aliven.✎ 3

Quiet Firing

Making a job so bad that the employee leaves — quiet firing — as the manager's version of quiet quitting, named within weeks of it. The record's entry for the mirror term, and for the fact that it described something managers had done for a century.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Soft Life

A life of ease over hustle — rest, nice things, no struggle for its own sake — as an aspiration named in Nigerian online culture and spread through TikTok in 2022. The record's entry for the deliberate refusal of grind, and the reason 'soft' became a compliment.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Textationship

A relationship conducted entirely by message — months of texting, no meeting — as a category people found themselves in after the apps. The record's entry for the situationship's more literary cousin.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Top G

The self-awarded title of an influencer whose clips were everywhere in 2022, adopted by teenage boys as a compliment and by everyone else as a warning sign. The record's entry for the title, filed for the summer it was on every school playground.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Unspoken Rizz

Charisma so complete that no words are needed — unspoken rizz — as the highest tier of the rizz taxonomy, and the record's entry for the attraction that is, by definition, unprovable. Anyone claiming it has spoken, and lost it.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

What Color Is Your Bugatti

An influencer's reply to any criticism — 'what colour is your Bugatti?' — meaning: I am rich and you are not, so be quiet. The 2022 phrase of a certain corner of the internet, used since as a parody of that corner. The record's entry for the car as an argument.

▸ 2022peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Bare Minimum Man

A man praised for doing the least — remembering a birthday, texting back — as the 2021 critique of the low bar, and 'the bare minimum' as the phrase for what he did. The record's entry for the standard, and for the women who noticed it.

▸ 2021peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Green Flag Behaviour

A small act that signals a good partner — texts when he gets home, is kind to waiters, has a female friend — as the counterpart to the red flag, and the record's entry for the low bar as a compliment. Most green flags are basic decency, which says something.

▸ 2021peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Hard Launch

Posting your partner's face, name and tag — the full reveal — after the soft launch's hand and shoulder. The record has the soft launch; this is the announcement, and the moment a relationship becomes content in full.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

High Value Man

A man who is, by his own account, worth dating — money, height, a plan — as a phrase from the dating-advice internet that was used sincerely by some and as a punchline by most. The record's entry for self-assessment as a category.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Love Bombing

Overwhelming someone with affection early to secure them — a cult-recruitment term from the 1970s that TikTok adopted in 2021 for any partner who was too nice too fast. The record's entry for the diagnosis that made flowers suspicious.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Pre-Workout Face

The wide-eyed, itching, slightly frightened expression of someone who has taken a caffeine-and-beta-alanine powder and is waiting for it to hit — as a genre of video and a shared experience. The record's entry for the tingle as a meme.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Sneaky Link

A secret hook-up — the person you see without telling anyone, the link being sneaky. A 2021 phrase from a song and a lot of videos of people leaving houses at dawn. The record's entry for the affair as a logistics term.

▸ 2021peak 2021still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Chronically Online

So online that one's opinions no longer make sense offline — chronically online — as the diagnosis for a take that could only have been formed on a timeline. 'Extremely online' is the milder form; 'terminally' the last. The record's entry for the condition, from which it suffers.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Day in the Life

A video of an ordinary day at an ordinary job — a desk, a lunch, a walk to the printer — narrated as if it were a nature documentary. The 2020–23 genre that made the office a set, and the reason a lot of companies wrote a social-media policy. The record's entry for the workday as content.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Grindset

Grind plus mindset — the attitude of a person who never stops working, sincerely in 2020 and as a parody ('sigma grindset') by 2021. The record's entry for the portmanteau that was earnest for about a year.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Gymtok

The gym side of TikTok — form checks, lifts, the mirror, the pre-workout face — which became its own culture in 2020–23 with its own celebrities, its own arguments and its own etiquette about filming. The record's entry for the gym as a stage.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Slow Dating

Taking longer to meet, longer to commit, fewer matches at once — the slow-food of dating, named in 2020 when everyone was forced to and continued by people who preferred it. The record's entry for the deliberate pace.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Wokefishing

Pretending to hold progressive views to attract a partner — the feminist bio, the reading list — and revealing otherwise later. Named in 2020, revived in 2025 as the performative male. The record's entry for the political catfish.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

You're on Mute

The most-said sentence of 2020 — 'you're on mute' — as the record's entry for the year of the video call, and for the colleague who spoke for a minute to nobody. Also 'can everyone see my screen?', which had the same answer.

▸ 2020peak 2020still up