Who is Generation Alpha?
and wtf does skibidi mean?
A pal-slash How To Be Less Old subscriber (aka best kind of pal) forwarded me an article from the Daily Mail. It highlights new terms that are so hot off the press that even Generation Z is left scratching their heads. Full disclosure the title alone almost did me me in:
“Gen Alpha's BAFFLING slang terms like 'fanum tax' and 'skibidi' leave older internet users STUMPED.”
If left to my own devices I would have bounced out. “Gen Alpha” “fanum tax” “skibidi” — GTFOH.
The headline was so dense it felt like math. You’ll come to learn that what I can file under the umbrella of “math” is vast and truly shocking. Noodling on another example of “math” and coming up empty even though there are a million. Will try to have one by the end of this post.
Back to the Daily Mail article. Knowing that all of you were going to be on this journey with me, gave me the the strength to push forward. Let's start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start:
Gen Alpha.
Never heard of it! Is it a British thing? A light google set me straight and put me to shame. How dare I be co-creating a space called How To Be Less Old without Gen Alpha knowledge. I predict Emily will have had this knowledge. She will feel sad for me that I didn’t but she will also support me and I love her for that.
Gen Alpha is the generation of people born (or who will be born) between 2010 and 2025.
“Or will be born” sends a little chill up the spine. Young people who haven’t yet materialized are already cooking up new ways to rattle us.
Sleighed the first dragon! Here’s where things get #complicated. It seems that a young streamer who goes by the name papaboy020 shared a clip of his Roblox character dancing to a song he had written. You might be asking yourself — what is Roblox? Here’s a clip from Sidney (10) and her mom Danielle Schneider explaining what Roblox is.
ROBLOX EXPLANATION BROUGHT TO YOU BY SIDNEY B. (10) PLEASE TAKE A LISTEN.
Sidney! Chicken nugget-land is to my liking!
Sid also mentioned Robux which is the in-game currency for Roblox.
This CNN article explains that users can purchase various items, accessories, avatar upgrades and developer products and can even access games within the platform’s ecosystem using Robux. Users can acquire Robux by buying them directly through the app and buying digital or physical gift cards that can range between $10 and $200.
Sounds like an absolute nightmare for parents. Speaking of nightmares, this is the 20 second clip that inspired the Daily Mail article. Please double click to play.
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The lyrics to this Roblox TikTok are:
Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler.
Ur so skibidi
Ur so fanum tax
I just want to be your sigma
Let’s go line by line.
Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler.
In shocking news, we know rizzler. Young Louie (12) gave us “rizzler of Oz”. We know that a rizzler is a guy/gal that has charisma otherwise know as game.
GYAT is not so straight forward. It's very hard to pin down. Some say it’s the acronym “get your act together.” Which feels right but not in this context. Urban dictionary is saying GYAT is short for saying ‘goddamn’ when an attractive person walks by.
Pro tip: Doesn’t make sense until you say it aloud - emphasis on the gyat, soft on the damn.
The Daily Mail article hypothesizes that GYAT is another word for rump. That kinda tracks.
Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler = Sticking out your butt for this charmer to get a glance.
Moving on to:
Ur so skibidi
Sometimes you can get a feel for term— even if you don’t have it you have an area. I’ve got a whole bunch of nothing for skibidi. After tooling around the web the best I can surmise is that skibidi is a nonsensical word that gamers use when they are excited about a high score or a good run.
Ur so fanum tax
I’m about to explain “fanum tax” to you guys but it’s hard when I know that we will NEVER find a moment in our lives when this is going to come up EVER again. With that said — the gamer zine Polygon has the answer. A gamer name Kai Cenat originated it:
Basically, he would use the term “tax” whenever he or a guest on his stream took a small bite of food. In a clip, the streamer Fanum took a bite of some of Cenat’s cookies, so fans started calling it the “Fanum tax.”
So “Fanum” is the name of a streamer person and “tax” is when someone takes a bite of food. Curious if the “tax” is a real bite of food or a virtual bite of food. I’m leaning toward virtual.
Last and actually not least —
I just want to be your sigma
In real life we know sigma to be a letter in the greek alphabet. In the gaming world sigma means: a highly independent, self reliant man that respects women.
This is my interpretation/translation of the 20 second Roblex-related song created by papaboy020 based on my learnings:
I see your curves girl, you know you want me.
I can’t find the words to explain how into you I am so I’ll just make one up.
Take a bite out of of this.
I just want to be your main squeeze.
My work is done here. May we never encounter “fanum tax” again.
OH! Example of “math”. My friend Jenny and I were texting about the new season of And Just Like That. She texted “It’s like Lisa is Charlotte, Seema is Samantha and Nya is Carrie/Samantha.” I wrote back back “Give me a min — math”.
I had to really sit and think it out. Carrie-the-one, if you will. That’s math babyyyyyy!
You ladies are doing the Lord's work.
I like skibidi and I’m going to use it!