Tried saying "gaslight gatekeep girlboss" ironically and my Gen Z cousin corrected me on the origin

I thought it was just a random internet joke from like 2019 but she pulled up a whole history of it starting on Tumblr then getting twisted by corporate memes. Turns out the original post was making fun of self-help scammers not actually endorsing it. Now I feel old for using it wrong for months. Has anyone else gotten called out for using a buzzword wrong by a younger person?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas_martinez1mo ago

oh man i feel this so hard lol. it's like how every cool slang gets co-opted by some brand and then suddenly you're the one who looks out of touch for using it the original way. reminds me of how "adulting" started as a joke about struggling with basic stuff and now it's in corporate emails.

brown.gavin1mo agoTop Commenter

... and that's exactly what happened with my buddy Dave. He's been saying "no cap" for years, way before it hit TikTok or whatever. Last week he said it at a client meeting for his landscaping gig, and the guy just stared at him like he had two heads. Then the client goes "oh, is that what the kids say?" Made Dave feel like he was 60 years old or something. He told me later it's like the universe punishes you for being early to the party. Now he only uses old slang like "rad" and "gnarly" just to be safe, which honestly is even funnier because he's 35.