[apricot]

> Are there many instances of people using unalive IRL

As a parent of a teenager, I see them use "unalive" non-ironically as a synonym for "suicide" in all contexts, including IRL.

[ErrorNoBrain]

If your teenager often talks about suicide, there could be some issue that needs to be resolved.

Sincerely the child of a parent who committed suicide. He mentioned suicide a few days before.

[bee_rider]

“Unalive” is sort of… awkward in that silly online way. But, we also have phrase like “off oneself,” or just euphemistically describing the person as having died. It’s always been a difficult topic to talk about, I don’t understand using it as a specific example of gen-Z fragility.

Just that they suck at coming up with pithy new slang terms.

[anton-c]

They do have some awful slang.

I agree though I think they're picking it up from online censorship in this case, not being fragile.

[kulahan]

Well that’s sad. They can’t even face the word?

[animuchan]

It's getting blocked / shadow banned / demonetized on sites like YouTube, so naturally all commentary starts using a synonym.

Unalive is one of the popular ones, but it's a whole vocabulary at this point. Guess what "PDF file" stands for.

[kevinventullo]

It’s not about whether they can face it. The younger generations are more in tune with mental health and topics like suicide than any previous generation. The etymology of the euphemism was about avoiding online censorship, while its “IRL” usage was merely absorbed through familiarity from the online usage.

[apricot]

I think it's just the term they immediately associate with the idea. They see "unalive" more than "suicide" online, so it becomes their default word for it. The fact that it originates in automated censorship avoidance is irrelevant.