TL;DR: The "Brain Rot" Cheat Sheet
If you’ve heard your ten-year-old scream "Skibidi" at a sandwich or tell you that you have "negative aura," don't panic. You aren't losing your mind; you’re just witnessing the birth of Gen Alpha slang—a dialect forged in the fires of YouTube Shorts and TikTok.
- Rizz: Short for charisma. If you have rizz, you’re smooth.
- Skibidi: Derived from the Skibidi Toilet series. It can mean "bad," "evil," or absolutely nothing at all.
- Ohio: Used to describe something weird or cringey (e.g., "Only in Ohio").
- Fanum Tax: Taking a portion of someone’s food (named after streamer Kai Cenat and his friend Fanum).
- Aura: Your overall "vibe" or coolness level. Doing something embarrassing gives you "negative aura."
- Brain Rot: A self-aware term for low-quality, high-stimulation content like Skibidi Toilet or infinite Roblox parkour videos.
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We’ve all been there: you’re driving to soccer practice, and your kid says something that sounds like a glitch in the Matrix. This isn't just "slang" in the way we had "cool" or "rad." This is an entire linguistic ecosystem built on hyper-fast internet memes.
Gen Alpha (kids born roughly between 2010 and 2024) is the first generation to be fully "iPad native." Their language isn't just influenced by the internet; it is the internet. Most of these terms come from YouTube creators, Twitch streamers, and the chaotic world of Roblox chat rooms.
Slang has always been a way for kids to create a "no-parents-allowed" zone. If you don't understand what they're saying, they’ve successfully built a subculture.
But there’s a deeper layer here: Community. When a kid says "Skibidi," they aren't just saying a nonsense word; they are signaling that they are "in" on the joke. They’ve watched the same YouTube videos as their friends. In a world where digital play is the primary way kids socialize, knowing the "lore" is social currency.
However, the speed of this slang is unprecedented. A word can go from "cool" to "cringe" in forty-eight hours because of the TikTok algorithm. This creates a high-pressure environment where kids feel they have to stay constantly "plugged in" to avoid being social outcasts.
This is the epicenter of the "brain rot" movement. It’s a series of videos featuring heads popping out of toilets. It sounds—and frankly, is—ridiculous. But for kids, it’s a massive narrative saga. When they use "Skibidi" as an adjective, they’re referencing this specific, weird corner of the internet.
- Parent Verdict: Mostly harmless but incredibly loud and weird. It’s the modern-day equivalent of Ren & Stimpy, just with worse animation.
Short for "charisma." You’ll hear about "unspoken rizz" or "rizzler." It’s almost always used in the context of flirting or being attractive.
- Parent Verdict: It’s actually a pretty clever linguistic evolution. Just be aware that if your 8-year-old is talking about rizz, they’re likely mimicking older kids on TikTok.
If you steal a fry from your kid's plate, you are "Fanum taxing" them. This comes from streamer Kai Cenat.
- Parent Verdict: This is one you can actually use to annoy them. Next time you take a sip of their juice, just say "Fanum tax" and watch them roll their eyes into the back of their head.
This one is trickier. A "Sigma" is supposedly a "lone wolf" who is cool, stoic, and successful. While often used ironically, it can sometimes be a gateway to "alpha male" content that leans into misogyny.
- Parent Verdict: Keep an eye on this. If they’re calling themselves a "Sigma" because they did something cool, fine. If they’re using it to justify being a jerk, it’s time for a talk.
If you feel like your kid’s vocabulary is shrinking to five nonsense words, it might be time to introduce some higher-quality media. You don't have to ban YouTube, but you can balance the scales.
If you want to remind your kid that stories can have actual emotional depth (and not just toilet-head jumpscares), this is the gold standard. It’s visually stunning and deals with complex themes of nature and technology.
- Ages: 6+
- Why it works: It’s "cool" enough for Gen Alpha but has a soul.
For the older kids (12+) who are obsessed with gaming, Hades is a masterclass in storytelling and art design. It’s a "roguelike" game that is actually challenging, unlike many of the "brain rot" simulators on Roblox.
- Ages: 12+
- Why it works: It rewards skill and persistence, not just mindless clicking.
If you need to kill the "brain rot" during a car ride, Brains On! is fantastic. It’s science-heavy but fast-paced enough to keep an ADHD-generation brain engaged.
- Ages: 5-12
- Why it works: It encourages curiosity rather than passive consumption.
Getting them off the screen entirely? Wingspan is a beautiful, complex strategy game about birds. It sounds boring to a kid raised on Fortnite, but the engine-building mechanics are actually very similar to the "grinding" they do in games—just with better art and zero microtransactions.
- Ages: 10+
- Why it works: It’s a "prestige" board game that feels rewarding to master.
Most Gen Alpha slang is just linguistic "noise"—harmless, if annoying. However, there are a few areas where the language overlaps with darker corners of the internet.
- The "Looksmaxxing" Rabbit Hole: If your kid starts talking about "mewing" (a tongue exercise for a better jawline) or "looksmaxxing," they are entering a world of extreme body dysmorphia content. This is essentially the "pro-ana" of the 2020s, but marketed toward boys.
- The Sigma-to-Alpha Pipeline: As mentioned, "Sigma" can be a gateway to creators like Andrew Tate. If your kid’s slang starts including terms like "low-value" or "beta," it’s time to look at their YouTube history.
- Brain Rot Overload: While not "dangerous" in a traditional sense, if your kid can no longer focus on a 20-minute show like Bluey because they are used to 6-second YouTube Shorts, their attention span is being compromised.
Read our guide on identifying toxic masculinity in kids' media
The worst thing you can do is try to "ban" the slang. It won't work, and it makes you the enemy. Instead, try these three approaches:
- Be the Curious Student: Ask them, "Hey, I keep hearing 'aura.' What does that actually mean?" Let them explain it. It gives them a sense of mastery and keeps the lines of communication open.
- Use it (Badly): Nothing kills a "cool" word faster than a parent using it incorrectly. Tell your kid their room has "negative rizz" or that their homework is "so Ohio." They will cringe, they will laugh, and the word will lose its "secret language" power.
- The "Brain Rot" Check-in: Talk to them about the feeling of watching low-quality content. "Do you feel better or worse after watching an hour of Skibidi Toilet?" Helping them build self-awareness about their "digital diet" is more effective than any parental control app.
Gen Alpha slang is a byproduct of a highly connected, highly visual digital world. Most of it is nonsense, some of it is funny, and a tiny bit of it is concerning.
The fact that you’re even reading this means you’re already ahead of the curve. You don't need to speak the language fluently; you just need to know enough to know when your kid is joking and when they’re being influenced by something deeper.
Next Steps:
- Check the History: Take a five-minute scroll through your kid's YouTube or TikTok feed. If you see a lot of "Skibidi" or "Sigma" content, you know where the slang is coming from.
- Introduce an Alternative: Pick one "high-quality" media item from the list above—like The Wild Robot or Hades—and engage with it with them.
- Take the Screenwise Survey: To see how your kid's slang and media usage compares to other families in your community, jump into our personalized survey.