As TikTok phrase goes mainstream, meaning of ‘not alive’ explained
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As long as there are rules about what you can and can’t say (on the internet, actually, in real life), people have been inventing ways to say words that are banned, censored, or otherwise eliminated by algorithms . One of the latest examples is the term “inactive” or “inactive” — both words that are so popular on TikTok that their meanings may be self-explanatory. But it’s worth the layout. So, what does “lifeless” mean and why has it been so prevalent since 2020?
What does the TikTok phrase “not alive” mean?
Webster’s Dictionary Lists “inactive” as a word, although some dictionaries and word processors don’t recognize it.
Literally, it means “slow to perceive or feel” – in other words, not alive.
But in the context of its contemporary usage, especially among social media users trying to circumvent TikTok’s algorithmic censorship, “not born” means something closer to “dead” — as a verb in the imperfect tense. “Unalive” stands for both the infinitive of the verb “die” and the adjective “dead”.
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Photo illustration by Drew Angler/Getty Images
The term may have originated from TikTok. the daily beast Wrote an article on its usage in April 2021, claiming that Zoomers (Gen Z membersi.e. people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s) use “inactive” in order to “bypass TikTok censorship.”
But it has spread to other social media platforms.
Why did TikTok users start using the word “inactive”?
According to TDB, “TikTok routinely removes videos that mention death, dying or suicide, so Zoomers found a loophole and is now using ‘inactive’ to replace its harsher, more direct synonym”.
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Editor’s note from european news Agreed: “non-existent” is “commonly used on TikTok to refer to suicide while avoiding the platform’s censorship.”
Simultaneously, MIT Technology Review It wrote last July that TikTok (mistakenly) flagged phrases that contained both the words “black” and “viewer” — because “its hate speech detection found ‘dead’ in ‘viewer’ and made Mark pairing as inappropriate”.
Whether or not you agree with the platform’s sources in flagging and censoring certain word combinations, you can see why some creators find it necessary to talk about death without using direct language.
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Algorithms are causing human language to reroute around them in real time.I’m listening to this youtuber saying things like “the bad guy didn’t bring his minions to life” because words like “kill” are related to demonetization
— badidea 🪐 (@0xabad1dea) December 15, 2021
How has the meaning of the word “not alive” changed over time?
2020 and 2021 have been tough years for many. As of last Aprilthe “inactive” hashtag apparently has nearly 10 million views; #unliveme has over 1 million.
More and more people are using the word in posts about suicide.so that some sites List “suicide” as the primary definition of “without life,” with adults and adolescents being typical users of the term.
some, from The last few daysbeing like tens of thousands of times. it popped up Twitter and Instagram Too. People are probably using it more now because it’s popular, not out of necessity.
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Bruno is a novelist, amateur screenwriter and journalist with interests in digital media, storytelling, film and politics. He has lived in France, China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, but returned to the UK in 2020 to pursue a degree (and because of the pandemic). His articles appear in Groundviews, Forge Press, and The Friday Poem, most of which are available at Medium or onurbicycle.com.
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