Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language, by Adam Aleksic, Knopf, 256 pages, $29
The kids these days have a lot of silly euphemisms. Porn becomes corn. Sex becomes seggs. Nipples are nip nops and a picture of an eggplant can stand in for a penis. Killing someone becomes unaliving them, and people kermit sewerslide instead of committing suicide. Everything slightly risqué or unpleasant becomes baby talk. But not because teens are overgrown infants—it's a bottom-up response to top-down censorship.
