What Changes During Adolescence?

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Slang has always existed and serves to separate one generation from the previous one.

Rapidly evolving language reflects how youth processes identity and social connection.

Listening beneath the words matters more than trying to decode every term.

You’re in a conversation with someone younger than you, maybe a patient, a student, someone you follow online, or your own child, and suddenly the sentence stops making sense.

“That movie was mid.”“I’m not gonna lie, that’s kind of sus.”“She gives off main character energy.”“That’s so cringe.”

You understand the words individually, at least some of them. But strung together, they make no sense.

As a psychotherapist and a mother of a teen, I hear this language not just in passing, but in emotionally deep and layered conversations on a daily basis. Slang shows up in how people describe relationships, anxiety, attraction, and even their sense of self. Gen Z trends have been trickling down to Gen Alpha, who are already pushing the language further, talking about brain rot, rizz, low-key, or terms such as “6–7,” which I have yet to decode.

Slang has always been about belonging. Every generation develops its own language as a way to reinforce identity, taste, and cultural alignment.

It functions as a social signal and serves to separate one generation from the previous one. Humans are wired to form groups, and shared language is the fastest way to determine who belongs and who doesn’t. When someone understands the jokes, the references, and........

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