A new viral video is making the rounds, and it turns out that in addition to our skinny jeans, even millennials' slang is considered uncool to the youth of America.
Nicole Pellegrino posted the video several days ago captioned, "Why did no one tell me slay is out?"
The video — shot while riding in the car with her half-sister Simone and Simone's best friend, Jorja — explains which slang words are "in" and "out," according to the youngest generation. The video has since garnered more than 7 million views on TikTok.
"What's in vs out feat. my gen alpha sister and her bestie," the text on the video begins before the intergenerational trio discuss several terms. TODAY.com also chatted with Pellegrino, who at 31 is considered a millennial, about her younger sister's rules.
The Pew Research Center defines millennials as anyone born between 1981 and 1996, and anyone born from 1997 to 2012 as Generation Z. Everyone born after 2012 is considered part of a new generation, which has recently been coined Generation Alpha online.
Here's what members of Gen Alpha had to say about some common internet slang today.
Slay
"It's not even funny, like, how out slay is," Simone, 12, begins in the nearly 90-second video.
"I can't say like, 'That's a slay?'" Pellegrino asks.
"No, oh my God," Simone replies, horrified.
Bet
Simone and her best friend Jorja go on to imply that "bet" — which generally means "OK" or "agreed" — is also out.
They visibly and audibly cringe when asked about it but do not offer a "cooler" alternative.
Crying laughing emoji
This has made headlines in the past, but the two sixth-graders were horrified by the idea of using the crying laughing emoji: 😂.
"You still use that?" Jorja asks, horrified.
"Do you actually still use that?" Simone adds. "Dead serious, you use it?"
They said instead, kids these days are using the crying emoji (😭) to express something being funny "because no one laughs by using the laugh" emoji.
If you are insulting someone and it's funny, then you can also use the skull (💀), they added.
Pellegrino says her sister later told her that crying laughing animal emoji are OK, like the cat (😹.)
What is cool then?
Pellegrino's video briefly discusses the phrase "preppy," which initially didn't seem all that different from past usage. However, she explains to TODAY.com that her sister and Jorja elaborated more in clips that ended up on the cutting room floor.
"There's basically like new preppy and old preppy," Pellegrino laughs, explaining her sister's summary. "New preppies (wear) the bright colors and Lululemon...then they were like, 'Old preppy is like that traditional Ralph Lauren polo person kind of thing.'"
The video also mentions the "vanilla girl" aesthetic, which is a minimalist, all-neutral look associated with a comfy and luxurious lifestyle.
Is Gen Alpha taking the 'cool' title from Gen Z?
Anyone familiar with the online discourse of intergenerational debate will know that after the Baby Boomers were roasted (see: OK Boomer), millennials became Gen Z's new internet punching bag. From our side-parts to generally "cringe" behavior on social media, there was no shortage of mockery.
However, as Pellegrino points out to TODAY.com, "slay" is "really more of a Gen Z phrase" — something fans picked up in the comments on her post as well.
"watching Gen Alpha come for Gen z is gonna be the highlight of my Millennial life 😂," one user replied.
Pellegrino isn't worried about her sister being able to dish it out.
"I think they're fearless," Pellegrino says. "They don't really care what people think of them, and they'll give it to your straight."
She adds that while the video showed the two girls hilariously roasting her, they're "really kind" and "so smart."
"They're just really funny," she says. "I'm excited to pick their brains the future...They're keeping me young."
