“No cap, keeping up with Facebook slop has lowkey altered my brain chemistry, and at this point, I’m cooked.”
If you understood that sentence, you’ve probably spent a lot of time scrolling social media. If you didn’t, you’re like a lot of people still learning the ever-evolving language of the internet — and broader culture.
It’s not a new phenomenon for internet terms to have made their way from the web to everyday conversations. Over the years, terms like “LOL” (short for “laugh out loud”), “ship” (a phrase used to describe a romantic pairing, generally in a fictional context) and “bae” (a term of endearment) have all been added to various dictionaries. And the list of words and phrases that originated on the internet and have become part of daily conversations continues to grow.
But how might the incorporation of these terms, some of which defy typical rules of grammar and spelling, be influencing people’s learning?
Research from Preply, an online language learning marketplace that connects learners with tutors, showed how internet usage is influencing today’s internet users’ language skills in everyday life. Here’s what they found.
How is social media impacting language?
Social media has impacted students and internet users in a variety of ways, according to Preply.
The company reported searches in fundamental spelling and grammar concepts shooting up in May, with the search “what is a digraph” spiking by more than 4,650%. “I before e except after c” was the top-searched spelling rule, while “boujee vs. bougie,” “donut vs. doughnut” and “gray vs. grey” were the top searches regarding spelling.
Anna Pyshna, a spokesperson for Preply, called it a “linguistic identity crisis.”
“On one hand, you have spelling bee-level grammar searches,” she said. “On the other, you have TikTok redefining language with memes and phonetic chaos.”
Internet slang ‘codified’ in dictionaries
All of that might still sound like gibberish, but it’s more complicated than that.
What researchers are finding is that no cap (no lie), internet slop (AI-generated content) and social media, period, are a small part of that changing lexicon.
In 2024, internet slang terms like “boop” (a gentle poke to someone’s head or nose) and “chef’s kiss” (an expression or gesture to indicate that something is excellent) were added to the Oxford English Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary.
Pyshna said it’s how English has always evolved.
“What feels like nonsense today will be textbook material tomorrow,” she said. “Language absorbs culture, reacts to technology and reflects its speakers. For learners, that means studying grammar and slang side-by-side.”
Sunshine State: internet’s impact on language in Florida
Preply didn’t show a breakdown of data on a state-by-state basis, so it’s not clear exactly how the incorporation of internet slang into everyday language has impacted Florida. But another group, WordUnscrambler.pro, found that Florida’s internet users are struggling with spelling certain words — perhaps as a result of technology.
Floridians most commonly misspelled the word “compliment,” according to Google data for all of 2025 collected by WordUnscrambler.pro, a website that unscrambles letters to find words for games like Scrabble and Words with Friends.
Across the country, the top 10 most misspelled words were “definitely,” “separate,” “necessary,” “believe,” “through,” “gorgeous,” “neighbor,” “business,” “favorite” and “restaurant.”
Most of the misspelled words “violate many phonics rules, contain silent letters … (or) double letters, originate from other languages and use tricky suffixes,” according to a spokesperson from WordUnscrambler.pro.
“Studies suggest heavy reliance on autocorrect weakens spelling skills over time,” the spokesperson said. “Some researchers call it digital amnesia. We simply forget things that we delegate to technology. Misspellings might be on the rise not because we know less, but because we need to know less.”
And on the flip side, some of the nation’s best spellers have come out of the Sunshine State. This year, three Florida students — 14-year-old Nicasio David of Fort Myers, 14-year-old Sree Vidya Siliveri of Jacksonville and 13-year-old Nikhil Sha of Miami — made it through the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In 2019, then-14-year-old Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy student Dhyana Mishra from Brevard made it to the national championship for the third time, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Stuti, who took second in the bee in 2012.
Do misspellings, use of internet slang point to learning loss?
Not necessarily. The data from Preply showed that while searches for basic spelling rules were up, so were searches for more complex grammar rules. It’s all part of language evolving to “absorb” culture, said Pyshna.
“The fact that Americans are searching for spelling rules like ‘variant vowels’ while simultaneously debating whether it’s ‘boujee’ or ‘bougie’ shows the linguistic moment we’re in: a blend of nostalgia, confusion and a genuine desire to understand,” Pyshna said.
“The rules (of language) aren’t dead, but they are negotiating with culture every single day, with a clear impact on the public.”
Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker. Instagram: @finchwalker_.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: No cap, Florida: Research shows how internet slang is affecting language skills
Reporting by Finch Walker, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
