Why tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha have embraced the bizarre slang ‘fax, no printer’
Their slang game has rizzen to new heights.
The youngins of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are evoking some old-time 1990s technology into their already-obscure slang.
But their latest phrase, “fax, no printer” — a TikToker went viral for saying it in 2021 — has very little to do with dated office devices from before many of them were born.
“‘Fax, no printer’ is more a play on words … than a cognizant recognition of old media technology,” Benjamin Burroughs, an associate professor of emerging media at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told “Today.”
“Many kids have no understanding of what a fax machine is.”
Instead, kids are leaning into how “fax” phonetically sounds like “facts” — a term even millennials use as a synonym for the word “truth.”
“It’s very similar to ‘No cap’ which means, ‘No lie,’” Burroughs added.
Another expert pointed out to “Today” that the phrase could be linked to the 2014 song “Post To Be” by Omarion and Chris Brown, which included the slang in its lyrics: “And that’s fax, no printer.”
Feel old yet, boomers?
Other recent slang also is receiving academic validation.
Oxford University Press named “rizz,” a term for charisma, as its word of the year at the end of 2023.
Dictionary.com additionally added a series of Gen Z favorite terms into its archives.
They include “the ick,” used to describe being skeeved out by something, and “mid,” which describes something mediocre.
Bussin’, which means feeling wonderful, was also included.
Gen Alpha’s phrases — many derived from content streamers online — are even weirder.
Those early teens are accustomed to “gyat,” an acronym for “girl your a– thick,” among many more seemingly age-inappropriate phases.
One is about a lengthy — specifically, 72-part — YouTube series depicting a war between toilets.
They also enjoy creating memes that satirically depict Ohio as the strange epicenter of “capitalist, wasteland culture.”