During quarantine, I have been spending an ungodly amount of my time on the TikTok For You page. As a result, my vocabulary is now essentially limited to TikTok slang. 

From talking to my friends to writing stories in my English class, I have been incorporating quotes from my favorite TikTokers into my everyday language. In my English class, we had to write a fractured fairytale, where I chose to fracture the story of Cinderella.

I decided to transform Cinderella into the modern-day princess Crustyemma who was thrust into TikTok fame. Crustyemma was essentially like the Charli D'amelio of her world infused with a sort of Hannah Montana type beat, as her fame was unknown to her family.  

I even used TikTok quotes like “it's the crusty face for me” when Crustyemma got bullied by her evil stepsisters. My English teacher said she enjoyed the humor, so I’m assuming she caught the references. I’m still not sure which to be more happy about — that she liked my humor or that she possibly uses TikTok.

In no way am I commending incorporating TikTok into everything you do, of course. It do be kinda embarrassing at this point. Imagine referencing TikTok with every literary assignment you get. I really said ?.

I dream of the day when informal language in literature is normal. I just think it would be so much more fun to use slang and even emojis, where you can express sarcasm and other emotions that can’t be expressed by simply using professional language. 

I was reading an analysis of Shakespeare’s work by Professor Sir Stanley Wells and Dr. Paul Edmonson that concluded that “The language of sexuality in some of the sonnets, which are definitely addressed to a male subject, leaves us in no doubt that Shakespeare was bisexual.” They could’ve just said that Shakespeare listened to Sweater Weather, it's not that complicated ???.

Using slang can make something sound so effortlessly humorous and concise and just adds so much ✨flavor✨. For instance, imagine if you could go from, “the boy was consumed by a fit of uncontrollable laughter” to “the boy began rotating around the y-axis.” 

Or, if you were trying to describe a person who’s so beautiful that you’re sorry to be breathing their air, you could just say “Heather” or if you wanted to express passive aggressiveness in dialogue, one could simply say “no❤️.”

It’s pretty clear to me that modern slang is the future of language, but y’all just aren’t ready for that conversation yet ?.