Twitter Data Indicates African Americans Are Behind Modern Slang

Twitter Data Indicates African Americans Are Behind Modern Slang


Black Twitter strikes again.

With African Americans more likely to use Twitter than whites, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that cities with large African-American populations are the sources of modern slang and shorthand. At least that’s what a recent study by scholars at the Georgia Institute of Technology is revealing.

Lead scientist Jacob Eisenstein analyzed Twitter data compiled between December 2009 and May 2011, tracking the origin and reach of new terms such as “bruh” – an evolution of “bro” – and the acronym “ctfu,” which stands for “cracking the f*** up.”

“There is a long history of adoption of African American slang (cool, dig, rip off) in mainstream US culture, so these findings agree with what we might expect,” notes Philip Ball, in his piece for BBC Future on the study.

Read more at The Grio…


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