[TillE]

I think despite having lived through it, it's easy to miss just how transformative smartphones and social media have been to human society.

There's been an absolute explosion in communication. In the early years of the internet it was pretty exciting and novel to be able to talk to people from other countries. Now it's completely unremarkable.

All this of course has a huge effect on how language develops and is used, and really we're still in the early years of it all (I guess The Smartphone Era starts around 2010 or so).

[serf]

counterpoint:

i've been on my phone/social/media/etc through the entire trend and this is the only time i've ever read the word 'delulu'; I had to look it up.

Might I suggest that tribe matters a lot in this context?

I don't listen to k-pop, I don't watch machinima, and I only knew 'tradwife' from the bullshit politics associated with the concept..

I think Cambridge called these too early. Maybe i'm old, and maybe i'm sheltered, but I never hear these words used in real life aside from a young nephew who was into the toilet thing, and he didn't so much use the word as just scream SKIBIDI while dancing around the room.

I'm fine with being old. Some trends you prefer to see sail away from you.

[defrost]

Counterpoint:

Delulu made it to Hansard*, the official government record of a G20 five eyes nation.

  As an example, the Cambridge University Press cited a 2025 speech in parliament where Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the phrase "delulu with no solulu" during the last sitting week before the election.

* https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard

[DoctorOW]

> the only time i've ever read the word 'delulu'; I had to look it up.

I'm going to be honest, I fully expect dictionaries to contain the definition of words I have to look up. What would be the point of a dictionary (or really any reference book) that only contains things I already know?

[ownlife]

counterpoint: I’m surprised “delulu” wasn’t already in OED and certainly would not consider it “cutting edge” slang in 2025 (quite the opposite). Just because one person hasn’t heard certain words doesn’t mean they don’t belong in what is meant to be a comprehensive dictionary. In fact, if you needed to know the meaning of every word that is added to the dictionary, then you would have no need for a dictionary! Never having heard a word has nothing to do with whether OED “called it too early.” To make that judgment one would want to find external evidence.