Rolling Stone - USA (2019-07)

July 2019 | Rolling Stone | 55

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FIGURING OUT WHAT’S going to be hot next week has always meant finding out what teenagers are into. These days, thanks to the internet, youth

culture is about much more than new songs or big movies, and it’s evolving faster than it ever has before. Here’s a guide to the latest round of technological

advances, political movements, social media memes and slang terms that’ll be shaping pop culture in the very near future.

The Young and the Online

HOT DECODING WHAT THE KIDS ARE SAYING

Talking with your friends exclusively via text is so 2012. Now, every

app has a chat function, each with its own purpose — iMessage

remains the go-to for random chatting; sliding into someone’s In-

stagram DMs is a great way to flirt; and Google Docs has become

a subtle way to pass notes in class without your teacher noticing.

According to Common Sense Media, the average teen spends nine

hours a day staring at screens, mostly on entertainment media. So

when parents confiscate an iPhone, it’s a life-or-death situation.

Luckily, there’s a hack for that: burners. Old cellphones can easily

be connected to Wi-Fi. As one high-tech-crimes detective recently

noted, “In almost every high school across the country there is a

kid who sells burner phones from their locker.”

HOW TO MESSAGE LIKE A TEEN

TIKTOK’S BIG TAKEOVER

A STRANGE

NEW LIFE

FOR ’90S

CARTOONS

DRIP

A way to describe the intensity of one’s

style, energy or unique way of being, as in

“I drip too hard”; popularized by Atlanta

rappers like Gunna and Lil Baby.

WOAH

Means the same thing as “whoa,” but

also describes a dance that resembles

what would happen if you tried to say

“woah” with your whole body.

YEET

Coined in 2014 to describe a frenetic

dance move, yeet has evolved to denote

an all-around expression of excitement

and enthusiasm.

In May, hundreds of

thousands of students

walked out of their high

school classrooms as

part of a worldwide

Global Climate Strike.

“Our childhoods are

being spent begging

them to stop ruining

our adulthoods,” noted

a 17-year-old activist

in Oregon. It’s just one

moment in what has

become the largest

youth protest move-

ment in decades.

With a reported 500 million users, TikTok is be-

coming one of the most popular platforms on the

planet. The app — which makes it easy to create

videos of three to 15 seconds — is minting stars

like Loren Gray (right) and shaping musical tastes

in a way Top 40 radio can’t match. Take “Old

Town Road,” which was a hit on TikTok well before

it was a hit elsewhere. “I promoted the song as a

meme for months until it caught on to TikTok,” Lil

Nas X said recently, “and it became way bigger.”

Teens are taking

old cartoons to

strange new places.

In meme after

meme, Pokémon

are depressed, and

SpongeBob has

become a symbol

of youthful angst,

paired with cap-

tions of confusion

and apathy. It’s a

rewriting of cultural

touchstones by kids

who may not even

remember them.

Climate

Change :

The Fight

of Their

Lives

Arianators

Ariana Grande fans are so intense, the

singer had to step in and tell them to go

easy on Pete Davidson after their split.

The BTS A.R.M.Y.

Fans of the K-pop group are uniquely

versed in attacking journalists, even for

comparing the boy band to other groups.

Mendes Army

The Canadian singer has been open

about his anxiety, and fans try to shield

him by shaming haters on Twitter.

Rise of the Stans

Hot New Tech: Old Tech

SLANG DICTIONARY

Teen-led hordes of online fans are

defending their favorite stars

Contributors

Madison Fahmy,

Charles Holmes,

Brendan Klinken-

berg, Terry Nguyen,

Brittany Spanos,

Tessa Stuart