After sitting down with my Aunt on Mother’s Day after we had finished eating, I went on to ask her some of the main differences between the modern day “gen z language” compared to her language growing up in the 70s. The main thing she pointed out was how this current generation relies on abbreviations and emojis to coast through conversations. Back in her day language and communication was a lot more intimate, and actually occurred in person. People would have to meet up at school, parks, or on bikes to make and keep solid friends all on the same page with language. There was no “pu, wya, wtw, and 👋🏼” to communicate and everyone’s language was on the same page. Nowadays if you’re not in the loop for a second you might be missing out on what new stuff your goddaughter or niece will be sending you. A story that she told me our family can laugh about now but wasn’t funny at the time was when my great grandmother had passed away when I was 8 and my aunt sent “She will forever be missed, lol” to my grandma. My grandma was obviously furious at first and asked my aunt why she is trying to be funny during this terrible time. My aunt said “what do you mean? All I sent was lol, lots of love”. Shortly after my grandmother had to fill her in that “lol” means laughing out loud. Obviously my Aunt had felt terrible but while she was telling me the story yesterday she was absolutely cracking up and it’s a memory for the ages. Although, this is a prime example of modern day communication maybe being too confusing or fast for elder people at times, and that not everyone is going to be on the same page as past generations. I feel like everyone is trying their best, but with the modern day pace and search for that new abbreviation, unfortunate in the moment miscommunications like this can occur.