Platforms & apps

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Exposed

Revealed as a fraud, a liar or worse — EXPOSED, in capitals, in a thumbnail — as the YouTube drama genre of 2015–19 and the word for any revelation. The record's entry for the exposure as entertainment, and for the red arrow that pointed at it.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Eye Roll Emoji

🙄 — the eye roll, which the internet had been asking for since 2010 and used, when it arrived, under everything. The record's entry for the contempt that finally got a face, and for the text message it has ended.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Eyes Emoji

👀 — 'I'm watching', 'this is interesting', 'say more' — as the reaction to gossip, a hint, or a photo that deserves attention, and the record's entry for the two eyes that have looked at everything on the internet without a word.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

● Aliven.

Influencer

A person paid for being watched. Objected to by every person it describes and used by all of them on tax returns.

▸ 2015peak 2019still up

☠ Deadadj.

Lit

Exciting, of a party. Said by a Prime Minister's spokesperson about a manifesto launch, which is the death certificate.

▸ 2015peak 2016†2018

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Minion Memes

Yellow cartoon henchmen with a motivational quote in a bad font, shared by mothers on Facebook in 2015–16 in such quantity that the Minion became the mascot of a whole generation's posting style. The record's entry for the meme that parents made.

▸ 2015peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Nerd Emoji

🤓 — the nerd face, adopted around 2021 as the reply to anyone being too pedantic, too correct, or too long: 'erm, actually 🤓'. The record's entry for the glasses that ended a thousand corrections, and for the correction that this entry is.

▸ 2015peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Notification Squad

The commenters who arrive within a minute of upload because the bell told them — 'notification squad' — and 'first' as their war cry. The record's entry for the audience that competed to be earliest, and for the comment that meant nothing but speed.

▸ 2015peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Periscope

Live video from a phone, with hearts floating up the screen. Bought by Twitter before it launched and closed by Twitter after it had been absorbed, which is the full lifecycle of an acquisition.

▸ 2015peak 2016†2021

☠ Deadphr.✎ 4

Pivot to Video

Newsrooms firing writers to make videos nobody watched, because a platform's numbers said otherwise. The numbers were wrong by up to 900 per cent; the writers were not rehired.

▸ 2015peak 2017†2018

☠ Deadn.✎ 6

Pizza Rat

A rat dragging a slice down the subway steps. New York recognised itself, then made a costume of it for Halloween, six weeks later.

▸ 2015peak 2015†2015

◐ Dyingadj.✎ 2

Savage

Brutally honest, approvingly. Was a Megan Thee Stallion single, and the single outlived the adjective.

▸ 2015peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Snapstreak

The fire emoji and number that appear next to a Snapchat friend when you have snapped each other every day for at least three days in a row, and the obligation that follows. Introduced in April 2015, it produced streaks in the thousands, teenagers handing their logins to friends before holidays to keep them alive, and a small industry of parental worry. The record's entry for the daily photo of a ceiling sent to a person you no longer speak to.

▸ 2015peak 2017still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Spill the Tea

Share the gossip. Borrowed, like most of the last decade's good phrases, from people who were not credited.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Super Like

Tinder's blue star, launched in October 2015 — a swipe-up that tells the other person you liked them before they decide, limited to one a day for free so that it means something, and instantly understood by its recipients as either flattering or a lot. The record notes the Super Like was the first dating feature to be described as 'desperate' by the people it was designed to help, and that it was later sold in packs.

▸ 2015peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 6

The Dress

Blue and black, or white and gold. The entire internet arguing about one photograph for one night, then reading a Wired piece about chromatic adaptation and quietly agreeing never to mention it again.

▸ 2015peak 2015†2015

● Aliven.✎ 4

WeRateDogs

Matt Nelson's Twitter account, started in November 2015, that posts a photograph of a dog and a rating out of ten, where the rating is always above ten. The gallery calls it the last, and perhaps only, good account on the platform. The record's entry for the scale that only goes up.

▸ 2015peak 2017still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Wine Mom

A mother whose posts are about needing wine — 'mommy's juice', 'it's five o'clock somewhere' — as a Facebook persona in 2015–18 and, later, the subject of a discourse about whether it was funny. The record's entry for the glass as a personality.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Alex from Target

A teenage cashier photographed by a customer and famous by the evening. On Ellen within a week; the spectacle of a person becoming content in real time, before anyone had a word for it.

▸ 2014peak 2014†2014

● Aliven.✎ 2

Anemoia

Nostalgia for a time you never knew — the 1980s mall, the 2007 internet, the summer of 1962 — coined in 2014 and adopted by the vaporwave and Frutiger Aero revivals as the name for what they were doing. The record's entry for the feeling this dictionary sells.

▸ 2014peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingn.

Brutalist Web Design

Raw HTML, system fonts, no decoration, on purpose. The one aesthetic in this record that looks identical to not having one.

▸ 2014peak 2017still up

☠ Deadphr.

But That's None of My Business

A frog sipping tea after saying something pointed. Lipton got two years of free advertising and did not deserve them.

▸ 2014peak 2014†2016

● Aliven.✎ 2

Callout Post

A post listing someone's wrongs, with evidence, for the community to judge — the callout post — from Tumblr fandoms into every platform. The record's entry for the trial by thread, and for the receipts folder that every callout requires.

▸ 2014peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Crying Cat

A cat with glassy, wet eyes, edited to look like it is about to cry, used for any small sadness since 2014 and the ancestor of every crying-animal reaction in the file. The record's entry for the tears as a template.

▸ 2014peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Fam

Friends addressed as family. Fading in public use, though still the standard vocative of the man selling you a phone case.

▸ 2014peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Hellsite

'This hellsite' — the affectionate name for any platform by the people who cannot leave it, first Tumblr, then Twitter, and the record's entry for the love that is expressed as a complaint. Nobody has ever called a site they left a hellsite.

▸ 2014peak 2019still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 7

Ice Bucket Challenge

Cold water, a nomination, a donation. Raised $115 million for ALS in eight weeks and funded a gene discovery, which makes it the only entry here that is dead and also worked.

▸ 2014peak 2014†2014

● Alivev.✎ 3

Muting

Silencing someone without their knowledge — a mute — as the polite alternative to blocking, and 'muted words' as the filter for topics you cannot bear. The record's entry for the quiet that nobody can see, and for the friend who has been muted since 2019 and does not know.

▸ 2014peak 2018still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 3

Netflix and Chill

An invitation with a euphemism inside it. Explained in every newspaper's lifestyle section in autumn 2015, and thereby ruined for its purpose.

▸ 2014peak 2015†2016

● Aliven.✎ 2

Peach and Eggplant

🍑🍆 — the two fruits that the internet made into anatomy, so thoroughly that Instagram banned the aubergine hashtag in 2015 and Apple redesigned the peach in 2016 and had to redesign it back. The record's entry for produce as innuendo.

▸ 2014peak 2016still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 5

Secret

Anonymous confessions from people in your contacts. Raised $35 million, ran for sixteen months, and was closed by a founder who said it no longer represented his vision, which was presumably the confessing.

▸ 2014peak 2014†2015

● Aliven.✎ 2

Starter Pack (Meme)

A collage of objects that define a type — 'the guy who peaked in high school starter pack' — as the 2014 format that turned stereotypes into inventories. The original starter pack, before the AI toy box and the Bluesky list borrowed the name. The record's entry for the type as a shopping list.

▸ 2014peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Thread (Twitter)

A chain of tweets telling a longer story — a thread — marked with '1/' or a 🧵 and, at its best, a new literary form, and at its worst, a blog post cut into pieces. The record's entry for the essay that was a list, and for 'a thread' as a promise.

▸ 2014peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Two Buttons

A sweating man choosing between two buttons — a comic panel from 2014 that became the format for any dilemma, real or absurd, and one of the record's most-used templates. The record's entry for the choice as a sweat.

▸ 2014peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

USB-C

The oval, reversible connector finalised in August 2014, which promised one cable for everything and delivered one shape for everything, with the speed, power and video support left as a surprise. Became a word for the public when the EU forced it on the iPhone in 2023. The record notes 'USB-C' is now shorthand for 'the good plug', and that the plug works the same on both sides, which took the industry forty years.

▸ 2014peak 2023still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 1

Bae

A partner, before anyone else. Tweeted by Olive Garden and Burger King in the same month, and thereby nobody's.

▸ 2013peak 2014†2016

● Aliven.✎ 1

Brandolini's Law

Refuting nonsense takes an order of magnitude more effort than producing it. Also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle; the reason the asymmetry is getting worse is filed elsewhere here under slop.

▸ 2013peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.

Flappy Bird

A bird, some pipes, and one tap. Removed from sale by its author at the height of its fame because he could not bear what it was doing to people; phones with it installed briefly sold for thousands.

▸ 2013peak 2014†2014

● Aliveabbr.✎ 3

GRWM

'Get ready with me' — a video of someone doing their makeup or hair while talking, which was a beauty genre in 2013 and became, by 2023, the container for every kind of story: the breakup GRWM, the court-date GRWM. The record's entry for the mirror as a confessional.

▸ 2013peak 2023still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Google Hangouts

Google's chat and video-call app, launched at I/O in May 2013 to replace Google Talk, Google+ Messenger and whatever else was lying around, then itself replaced by Allo, Duo, Meet and Chat over a decade in which Google could not decide what a message was. Finally switched off in November 2022. The record notes that at any moment between 2013 and 2022 there were at least three Google messaging apps, and that Hangouts was the one people actually used.

▸ 2013peak 2016†2022

☠ Deadn.

Health Goth

Black sportswear worn as an aesthetic rather than for sport. Died of a trend piece, like all aesthetics with a portmanteau for a name.

▸ 2013peak 2014†2015

● Aliven.✎ 3

Kenopsia

The eeriness of a place that is usually full and is now empty — a school at night, a mall on a Monday — coined by a web project in 2013 and adopted by the liminal-space internet in 2021 as the name for its whole feeling. The record's entry for a made-up word that became needed.

▸ 2013peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Patreon

The membership platform, founded in May 2013 by musician Jack Conte, where fans pay a creator monthly in exchange for early episodes, a Discord role and the feeling of having kept them alive. Made 'support me on Patreon' the closing line of every YouTube video and podcast from 2015 onward, and the record notes the word is now generic for the whole idea of fans as salary.

▸ 2013peak 2018still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Problematic

Having done or said something wrong — problematic — as Tumblr's word for it in 2013, from a blog listing celebrities' sins, into the general vocabulary of judgement. The record's entry for the adjective that could mean anything from a crime to a bad tweet, and did.

▸ 2013peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Problematic Fave

A favourite you know you should not have — a problematic fave — as the confession that fandom made routine, and the record's entry for the love that comes with a disclaimer. Everyone has one; the record has several.

▸ 2013peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Receipts

Screenshots proving what someone said. The reason nobody deletes anything and the reason everyone should.

▸ 2013peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Screenshot Notification

The alert Snapchat sends when someone screenshots your snap — the small betrayal receipt that made 'they screenshotted' a sentence with weight, and that generations of teenagers have tried to dodge with a second phone. Widely known from 2013, extended by Instagram to disappearing DMs in 2018, and the record notes it is the only notification whose main effect is to make the sender wonder what they said.

▸ 2013peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Slack

The workplace chat app, launched in 2013 from the ruins of a failed video game, that replaced office email with channels, threads, custom emoji and the small dread of a green dot beside your name. Peaked in 2020, when it became the office, and the record notes it is now a verb ('Slack me'), a mood ('Slack is quiet') and a place where 'quick question' means the next forty minutes.

▸ 2013peak 2020still up