It’s all meme, meme, meme

One of the drawbacks of being old is that one slips inexorably into the slot of activities that attract senior citizens – U3A, NADFAS, bridge, allotments, volunteering etc.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but we still need to mix with all ages so we can hear other views or slants on life, and to try and keep up with what’s new in lifestyle or, perhaps more importantly, technology.

But we seem to mix less and less with younger people, and that leads on to the fact that it becomes more challenging to understand our constantly changing modern language.

Why do people keep saying ‘hash tag’ in front of a word?

What does moshing and hellacious mean?

I love words and word play and could reasonably suggest that I’m quite good at expressing myself in English.

I enjoy Scrabble, and playing online against the computer means that I’ve come across a whole swathe of words I didn’t know existed.

Who knew that Uta is a ‘side blotched lizard’?

But knowing that xylan is ‘a yellow polysaccharide’, whilst xyster is ‘a surgical instrument for scraping bone,’ just doesn’t cut the mustard.

These words don’t come up in any normal person’s conversation.

I keep trying to learn some of this new everyday language, but if I do learn a useful new word, I’ll have forgotten it by the time the opportunity to use it arises.

Then there are words that are not very desirable in my eyes, but a sad reflection of this hot bed of negative social media. There’s gaslighting, for example.

With a degree in psychology, I should be quite good at this, but have absolutely no inclination or desire to ‘manipulate and deceive any acquaintance into questioning their sanity.’

At my age, the latter is automatic, anyway.

And that wipes out the idea of being a frenemy too, where one pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy.

On the other hand, being a bonatee does appeal, but I can hardly call myself the female head of a household when I live on my own.

Fortunately, some new words are more accessible, such as webinar, bralette and jeggings, and I can deduce that a freegan must be a vegan who forages for free food.

As for a meme, which is mentioned quite often, I find it really hard to get my head around its apparently complicated meaning.

According to Google, it’s ‘an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means; an image, video, piece of text, etc, typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.’ Gulp!

I then go looking for examples and am confronted with pictures of cats with inane comments printed on them.

For example, there’s a picture of a cat’s head apparently poking through a hole in a ceiling, with the words ‘Ceiling Cat is watching you’.

Is that supposed to be funny? Am I stupid? I just don’t get it.

I think I’ll concede that I’ll have to use my new-found vocabulary to help me win Scrabble, and leave the use of 21st century English to those younger people for whom it comes so easily.

And Eureka! I’ve just realised that that makes me a muggle ( a person who is not conversant with a particular activity or skill). Perhaps I’m trendy after all?