Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

As readers, we are often lovers of words in general. I love learning about what words mean and how we got certain phrases. Social media is shaping so much of our lives, I'm not shocked that it is also transforming language.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2025; Knopf; 978-0593804070
audio, ebook, print (256 pages); nonfiction

Author Adam Aleksic is not only a linguist, but he is also an internet native who has been part of social media since at least high school. While I use social media and I attempt to be a book influencer, I'm more of a poser (I particularly feel this after reading this book). I prefer long-form written communication. Aleksic focuses on short-form video, which I rarely watch (I've never used TikTok), and when I do watch videos on Facebook, I watch without sound.

With that being said, I still found the book interesting. I particularly liked the chapter on language appropriation. Some of the words I had heard, but I never really knew where they came from. I thought "slay" came out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom, but apparently not.

I thought he missed an opportunity of using a historical example when discussing the changing of words due to avoiding censorship (like the rise of unalive). In the 1950s, the word pregnant could not be said on television, and scriptwriters came up with all kinds of euphemisms. Lucille Ball was the first female actress to appear on television pregnant, and they used expecting. 

There were sections that were more explanations of social media, which focused on TikTok and short-form video, that I found a bit boring. I'm sure if you are an influencer, you will be interested in it. But as a casual user, I didn't need so much explanation of how it works. I wasn't expecting so much social media explanations, and it's definitely not what I was interested in when I picked up the book. But the information is similar to what I've read in social media "how-to" type books.

Aleksic boasts of his viral videos and high view counts, so if you want to be an influencer, you can use his book as a reference guide. If you are more interested in just the language use information, there is plenty of that. For the non-influencer reader who is fascinated with language, it is interesting enough on its own to justify getting this book even if you aren't wanting to be an influencer or create short-form videos and just plan to skim past some of the more technical social media info.

Buy Algospeak at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour. 

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