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Middle school teacher shares Gen Alpha slang parents should know as kids go back to school

"Skibidi" and "sigma" are alive and well, but what do they mean?

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Philip Lindsay/Instagram

Mr. Lindsay translates Gen Alpha slang for the rest of us.

Every young generation invents its own slang, much to the befuddlement of older folks who quickly tire of trying to keep up with constantly changing terminology. Remember Gen X's "bogus" or "gnarly" or "grody to the max"? How about millennials with "basic" and "extra" and "clapback"? Gen Z is still going strong with "giving" and "eating" and "mid," but even the older teens and young adults of Gen Z are beginning to feel their cool factor waning as Gen Alpha steps up to the plate.

Gen Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024, has arrived with a whole new vocabulary that parents of school-aged kids are scrambling to adjust to. Does anyone beyond high school age know what "skibidi" means? How about "sigma" or "gyat" or "Ohio"?

One group of people who have their fingers on the pulse of young folks' language is teachers. When you're immersed in tween and teen culture all day, you pick up some things, which is why Mr. Lindsay, a middle school teacher, shared a little Gen Alpha slang primer for the beginning of the school year.

"Mr. Lindsay here to remind you of some of the words that are coming to a classroom near you this fall," he began. "Word number one—GYAT. Still going strong, okay? It does not mean, 'Go You Athletic Teens,' it does not mean 'Get Your Act Together,' it is a reference to a big butt, and when they say this they are referencing a big butt."

"Next we have 'skibidi,' it's alive and well," Lindsay continued. "Are we any closer to a consensus on the definition of this word? Absolutely not. Some say it means something good, some say it means something bad. Most of them just use it as a filler word whenever they have the impulse to say it. Skibidi."

How about "sigma"? Or "what the sigma"? Watch Mr. Lindsay explain:

The line between Gen Alpha and Gen Z can be blurry, and right now the cuspers between those two generations are in middle and high school—prime time for slang usage. Mr. Lindsay made another video demonstrating how a millennial teacher might try to relate to those students on the first day of school and it's a masterclass in cringe cross-generational slang usage that somehow manages to slay.

Watch:

Others who work with young people confirmed that these terms are, indeed, alive and well among the tween set.

"These are now sliding down to the elementary grades as well. Teaching 3rd-5th grade vacation bible school this week and I’ve heard multiple skibidi and what the sigma references."

"I took my soon to be first grader to a baseball camp this week. It was for 1st to 6th but it was mostly the younger kids. I laughed so hard when one of them yelled, “what the sigma?!”

"My 12 year old overheard me listening, ran in and said- you can’t listen to our stuff!!!! And tried to steal the phone. 🤣🤣🤣. I said what the sigma, Bro. He hates me."

Parents are deeply appreciative of both Lindsay's vocab lesson as well as demonstration of terminology they've heard from their kids and are reluctantly fluent in:

"This lowkey kinda ate and I hate that I understood it 😂😂😂"

"Saying using your phone in class is giving pick me is the MOST effective way to stop it. Lol"

"My Gen Alpha kid overheard this and was like 'BET.'"

"If everyone does this we can unalive this slang, no cap."

"Why do I understand all of this?! 😂🤣😭 Parent problems I guess."

Millennials using Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang is endlessly funny. Social media creator Elle Cordova wrote a "first gen alpha poet laureate" poem using Gen Alpha slang in a poem written in the year 2060, and it's perfection. ("Ohio" means weird/boring/bad, by the way.)

There ya go, parents. At least now you know what your kids are saying, sort of. And if you really want to impress and horrify your children, make these words a regular part of your own vocabulary and see how long they keep using them.

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Our favorite giveaway is back. Enter to win a free, fun date! 🌊 💗

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Our favorite giveaway is back. Enter to win a free, fun date! 🌊 💗
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Mental Health

Happiness researcher explains how making a 'reverse bucket list' can change your life

Counterintuitive in our culture, but effective.

arthur c. brooks, harvard, psychology, happiness research, bucket list
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Harvard researcher Arthur C. Brooks studies what leads to human happiness.

We live in a society that prizes ambition, celebrating goal-setting, and hustle culture as praiseworthy vehicles on the road to success. We also live in a society that associates successfully getting whatever our hearts desire with happiness. The formula we internalize from an early age is that desire + ambition + goal-setting + doing what it takes = a successful, happy life.

But as Harvard University happiness researcher Arthur C. Brooks has found, in his studies as well as his own experience, that happiness doesn't follow that formula. "It took me too long to figure this one out," Brooks told podcast host Tim Ferris, explaining why he uses a "reverse bucket list" to live a happier life.

bucket list, wants, desires, goals, detachment Many people make bucket lists of things they want in life. Giphy

Brooks shared that on his birthday, he would always make a list of his desires, ambitions, and things he wanted to accomplish—a bucket list. But when he was 50, he found his bucket list from when he was 40 and had an epiphany: "I looked at that list from when I was 40, and I'd checked everything off that list. And I was less happy at 50 than I was at 40."

As a social scientist, he recognized that he was doing something wrong and analyzed it.

"This is a neurophysiological problem and a psychological problem all rolled into one handy package," he said. "I was making the mistake of thinking that my satisfaction would come from having more. And the truth of the matter is that lasting and stable satisfaction, which doesn't wear off in a minute, comes when you understand that your satisfaction is your haves divided by your wants…You can increase your satisfaction temporarily and inefficiently by having more, or permanently and securely by wanting less."

Brooks concluded that he needed a "reverse bucket list" that would help him "consciously detach" from his worldly wants and desires by simply writing them down and crossing them off.

"I know that these things are going to occur to me as natural goals," Brooks said, citing human evolutionary psychology. "But I do not want to be owned by them. I want to manage them." He discussed moving those desires from the instinctual limbic system to the conscious pre-frontal cortex by examining each one and saying, "Maybe I get it, maybe I don't," but crossing them off as attachments. "And I'm free…it works," he said.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

"When I write them down, I acknowledge that I have the desire," he explained on X. "When I cross them out, I acknowledge that I will not be attached to this goal."

The idea that attachment itself causes unhappiness is a concept found in many spiritual traditions, but it is most closely associated with Buddhism. Mike Brooks, PhD, explains that humans need healthy attachments, such as an attachment to staying alive and attachments to loved ones, to avoid suffering. But many things to which we are attached are not necessarily healthy, either by degree (over-attachment) or by nature (being attached to things that are impermanent).

"We should strive for flexibility in our attachments because the objects of our attachment are inherently in flux," Brooks writes in Psychology Today. "In this way, we suffer unnecessarily when we don't accept their impermanent nature."

What Arthur C. Brooks suggests that we strive to detach ourselves from our wants and desires because the simplest way to solve the 'haves/wants = happiness' formula is to reduce the denominator. The reverse bucket list, in which you cross off desires before you fulfill them, can help free you from attachment and lead to a happier overall existence.

This article originally appeared last year.

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Body language expert reveals powerful trick for people who have trouble holding eye contact

Too much eye contact can actually come off as aggressive.

body language, eye contact, communication, communication skills, interpersonal skills, confidence, psychology, social skills
Photo credit: Canva

A close-up view of a person's eyes.

Maintaining lots of eye contact in a conversation is generally considered a good thing. But we've all been on the other end of an interaction where the other person stares directly into your soul with intense and unflinching eye contact. It feels uncomfortable and even aggressive.

On the other hand, many people struggle to hold enough eye contact. It could be due to something as simple as being shy or anxious, or it could be related to a condition like social anxiety or autism.

So how can we thread the needle and make enough eye contact to build rapport, trust, and comfort with the people we're talking to, without making either of us uncomfortable? Communications expert Vanessa Van Edwards may have a solution.

body language, eye contact, communication, communication skills, interpersonal skills, confidence, psychology, social skills Vanessa Van Edwards is one of the foremost experts in body language and communication.By Taylor-winnie-bk/Wikimedia Commons

Van Edwards recently appeared on the podcast The Diary of a CEO and shared her rule of thumb for how, and more specifically when, to make eye contact during a conversation.

"Eye contact is a power move when you look at someone at the end of your sentence," she said.

That's it. It's that simple. Before that, you can feel free to let your eyes roam naturally.

She explained, "We like it when someone is actually accessing different memories or areas of their brain," noting that moving our eyes is a natural part of that process.

"But then when I end my sentence and look right at you you're like [Woah!]" she said. "Highly competent people make eye contact specifically at the end of their sentences to drill a point."

Brilliantly, you can see Van Edwards use the exact technique she's speaking about as she describes it. It comes across as very natural, charismatic, and powerful in the moments when she does choose to engage eye contact, like an exclamation point at the end of her sentences. It also appears fluid and human as her eyes drift to the side, up, or follow her hands as she gestures. There's no robotic eye lock-on.

Van Edwards said picking the right moments is more important than the total amount of eye contact, adding, "The worst advice I hear 'experts' give: Make more eye contact. Make 100% eye contact. It's awkward. They've studied this, the ideal amount of eye contact is between 60-70% of the conversation."

She added that doing more than that amount may be seen as a territorial or aggressive gesture.

@doacpod

Body Language Expert - Vanessa Van Edwards Mastering Eye Contact: The Secret to Powerful Communication Discover the transformative impact of effective eye contact in conversations. We reveal why ending sentences with direct eye contact enhances connection and influence, along with expert tips on utilizing body language cues like the lower lid flex for deeper engagement. #EyeContact #BodyLanguage #EffectiveCommunication #PowerfulPresence #SocialSkills #NonverbalCues #EngagementTips #CommunicationStrategies #LowerLidFlex #Influence

Nearly a million people viewed the short clip and many commenters found the advice extremely helpful:

"This woman came out of nowhere and is speaking to my soul"

"I do this naturally. That's so cool. I couldn't possibly maintain eye contact when explaining something."

"Finally, an eye contact advice that makes sense"

"That makes me feel so much better. This is exactly what I do 100%. I've always felt like there was something wrong with me."

Eye contact while you're listening is just as important. And Van Edwards has a simple trick for that, too.

"One of my favorites. It's called a 'lower lid flex,'" she said. It's a simple narrowing of the eyes, as if focusing on an object in the distance, that signals to the person talking that you're engaged and making an effort to understand what they're saying.

"Boy oh boy do we like it when someone is lower lid flexing at us," she added. "It's a great power cue to use in moderation."

body language, eye contact, communication, communication skills, interpersonal skills, confidence, psychology, social skills Two men talking on a street. Photo credit: Canva

This is a great trick for people who feel awkward or uncomfortable holding passive eye contact while listening. It gives you an action to do, a way to move your face and body, while signaling interest and focus rather than disinterest, which might be indicated by looking away.

Another popular technique utilized by people who don't like holding too much prolonged eye contact is the "triangle technique." It involves letting your eyes move between someone's eyes and mouth in a triangle shape, or between their eyes and a spot on their forehead for a less intimate approach. This method allows you to keep focus on the person without feeling the searing intensity of non-stop eye contact.

Eye contact doesn't come easily for everyone, but no matter where you're starting, improving the skill has tons of benefits. It helps you bond with others, become more memorable to new people you meet, and project confidence. And with Van Edwards' advice, it's more approachable than ever, even if it's not something that comes naturally to you.

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27 English words people have a hard time enunciating properly, even native speakers

"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky."

enunciate, enunciation, english, words hard to say, hard to pronounce
Image via Canva/Povozniuk

English words that are difficult to enunciate.

The English language is hard to master, even for native speakers. With over an estimated one million words in the language, not only are English words hard to memorize—they can be hard to properly pronounce and enunciate. Getting tripped up with pronunciation can make your communication unclear, or worse—make you sound uneducated.

As American English teacher Vanessa explains, many mispronounced words are common and used in daily conversation due to tricky consonants and vowels in English words. But by knowing the proper pronunciation, it can help you become a more confident speaker, which is why she shared 33 words that are hard for English language learners to pronounce, such as "probably," "drawer," and "sixth."

On the subreddit r/words, a person posed the question: "What's a word you've noticed many native English speakers have difficulty enunciating even though the word is used fairly often?"

Turns out, there are a menagerie of words people notoriously stumble over. These are 27 English words that people say are the hardest to enunciate.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Tricky 'R' words

"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky." - common_grounder

"Rural." - Silent-Database5613

“'Nucular' for nuclear." - throwawayinthe818

"Remuneration v renumeration (first one is correct)." - RonanH69

"February. It sounds like you're pronouncing it like it's spelled Febuary. But it's spelled February." - SDF5-0, ShadedSpaces

"Mirror. Some people pronounce it 'meer'." - weinthenolababy, diversalarums

"Anthropomorphize is a word I have to use semi-frequently with limited success each attempt." - ohn_the_quain

"I can’t say the phrase 'rear wheel' without considerable effort." - ohn_the_quain

"Eraser (erasure, but they're talking about the pink rubber thing)." - evlmgs

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Multiple syllables

"Exacerbated vs exasperated." - SNAFU-lophagus

"'Asterisk'. A lot of people wind up inadvertently name-checking Asterix. I think it's best for those who struggle to use the alternative name for that punctuation mark, the 'Nathan Hale', after the American patriot who famously declared, 'I can only regret that I have but one asterisk for my country!'" - John_EightThirtyTwo

"I realized recently I have always mispronounced mischievous. It's mis-chiv-us, not mis-chee-vee-us. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone pronounce that correctly." - callmebigley"

'Supposebly' [supposedly]. Drives me up the wall." - BlushBrat

"Library. My coworker knows I hate it, so he’ll say Liberry every time." - Jillypenny"ET cetera, not 'ect' cetera. I think people are used to seeing the abbreviation etc and since there is no diphthong tc in English their mind bends it into ect." - AdFrequent4623

"The amount of people who say Pacific when they're trying to stay specific is pretty alarming. I'm not even sure if they know it's a different word sometimes." - Global-Discussion-41

"Then there was my old boss who would confidently and consistently use the word tenant when he meant tenet." - jaelith"

"Probably." - Rachel_Silver

"Contemplate. It's one of those word I hear people stumble over more than anything, often it comes out as Comtemplate, Contempate or a combination of both." - megthebat49

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Foods

"Turmeric. People drop the first R. It drives me nuts!" - Jillypenny

"Oh, and it’s espresso, no X [ex-presso]." - Jillypenny

"Also cardamom with an N." - nemmalur

"Pumpkin (punkin)." - evlmgs

espresso, espresso gif, sipping espresso, espresso drink, drinking espresso sipping modern family GIF Giphy

Awkward vowels

"Crayon 👑. My ex pronounced it 'cran'. Drove me up a wall." - rickulele, premeditatedlasagna

'Mute' for moot. A good friend of mine, who's extremely intelligent and articulate otherwise, says that. Unfortunately, it's a word she likes to use. I haven't had the heart to tell her she's pronouncing it incorrectly, and it's been three decades." NewsSad5006, common_grounder

"Jewelry." - weinthenolababy

"I hear grown adults calling wolves woofs and they're not doing it to be funny." - asexualrhino


This article originally appeared last year.

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History (Education)

40 years after the Challenger exploded, one teacher shares how the ride was almost her fate

"I had no idea that anything like this could ever be part of my life."

NASA; Challenger explosion; Challenger crew; teacher in space; Challenger 40th anniversary
NASA/Wikimedia Commons

The Challenger crew.

In January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger took off with seven crew members on board, ready to make history. It was a big deal because this space mission wasn't just full of astronauts. Christa McAuliffe, a high school history teacher, was on board the spacecraft after winning a contest for the Teacher in Space Project. This would've made her the first teacher in space, so schools across the country wheeled televisions into their classrooms to allow students to watch history.

Instead, tragedy struck. The shuttle exploded just 73 seconds after takeoff due to "the destruction of the seals that are intended to prevent hot gases from leaking through the joint during the propellant burn of the rocket motor," according to NASA. All seven passengers on the Challenger perished in the explosion, leaving the country in shock.

NASA; Challenger explosion; Challenger crew; teacher in space; Challenger 40th anniversary The Challenger on crawler transportNASA/Wikimedia Commons

January 2026 was the 40th anniversary of the accident, and NewsChannel 5 caught up with one of the teachers who was competing for the seat McAuliffe occupied. Carolyn Dobbins taught at McMurray Middle in Tennessee in 1984 when NASA announced the Teacher in Space Project. Having always wanted to go to space, Dobbins applied for a seat on the shuttle. Over 11,000 teachers applied to be the one who would make history, and to Dobbins' surprise, she was chosen as a semifinalist. "I had no idea that anything like this could ever be part of my life," she said.

The retired teacher explains to the news station that she spent days on her application for space, saying, "An amazing thing happened." She shares about the series of snow days in 1985. "Snow day. Then we had another snow day and another snow day. Those snow days were what I needed! It was basically a mini-book about your beliefs, your desire to go into space, getting to the soul of the person."

NASA; Challenger explosion; Challenger crew; teacher in space; Challenger 40th anniversary The Challenger explosion. Kennedy Space Center/Wikimedia Commons

She admits that some of her students were worried about her going into space if she were to be chosen, but she brushed off their concerns, saying, "'Oh, I'll be back.'" Dobbins was completely confident in the success of the mission and excited to be able to do something she once thought was impossible. After being interviewed by a panel in Washington, D.C., she was sure she would be chosen for the mission. All of the teachers invited to be interviewed were also confident they'd be chosen, according to Dobbins. But only one could go, and the person chosen was 37-year-old mom of two, Christa McAuliffe, a teacher at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire.

Dobbins stood in front of her television watching the shuttle take off instead of experiencing it herself. Once the announcer said the magic words, "We have liftoff," the almost astronaut shares that she let out a sigh of relief before saying, "Way to go, Christa." She then turned off the television.

"Within seconds, the phone rang," Dobbins tells NewsChannel 5. "It was a friend. I said, 'Isn't it great? The shuttle has gone!' She said, 'Carolyn, you don't know.' It was the tone. You don't know. I just put the phone down, flipped on the TV. There it was. Already the footage was going of the explosion. That is still such an emotional moment."

NASA; Challenger explosion; Challenger crew; teacher in space; Challenger 40th anniversary Jay Greene in the control room after the Challenger explodesNASA/Wikimedia Commons

Dobbins taught for 53 years before retiring, and while she would've been willing to go on another mission that aimed to put a teacher in space, she's thankful for the life she has been able to live.

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How to keep your mouth shut in conversations when you know you should really stay quiet

Most people never regret just staying silent.

quiet, finger over lips, don't talk, keep it to yourself, silence
via Canva/Photos

A woman with her finger over her mouth.

It can be hard to stay quiet when you feel like you just have to speak your mind. But sometimes it's not a great idea to share your opinions on current events with your dad or tell your boss where they're wrong in a meeting. And having a bit of self-control during a fight with your spouse is a good way to avoid apologizing the next morning.

Further, when we fight the urge to talk when it's not necessary, we become better listeners and give others a moment in the spotlight to share their views. Building that small mental muscle to respond to events rather than react can make all the difference in social situations.

argument, coworkers, angry coworkers, hostile work enviornment, disagreement A woman is getting angry at her coworker.via Canva/Photos

What is the WAIT method?

One way people have honed the skill of holding back when they feel the burning urge to speak up is the WAIT method, an acronym for the question you should ask yourself in that moment: "Why Am I Talking?" Pausing to consider the question before you open your mouth can shift your focus from "being heard" to "adding value" to any conversation.

The Center for The Empowerment Dynamic has some questions we should consider after taking a WAIT moment:

  • What is my intention behind what I am about to say?
  • What question can I ask to better understand what the other person is saying?
  • Is my need to talk an attempt to divert the attention to me?
  • How might I become comfortable with silence rather than succumb to my urge to talk?

tape over muth, sielnce, be quiet, mouth shut, saying nothing A man with tape over his mouth.via Canva/Photos

The WAIT method is a good way to avoid talking too much. In work meetings, people who overtalk risk losing everyone's attention and diluting their point to the extent that others aren't quite sure what they were trying to say. Even worse, they can come across as attention hogs or know-it-alls. Often, the people who get to the heart of the matter succinctly are the ones who are noticed and respected.

Just because you're commanding the attention of the room doesn't mean you're doing yourself any favors or helping other people in the conversation.

The WAIT method is also a great way to give yourself a breather and let things sit for a moment during a heated, emotional discussion. It gives you a chance to cool down and rethink your goals for the conversation. It can also help you avoid saying something you regret.

fight, spuse disagreement, communications skills, upset husband, argument A husband is angry with his wife. via Canva/Photos

How much should I talk in a meeting?

So if it's a work situation, like a team meeting, you don't want to be completely silent. How often should you speak up?

Cary Pfeffer, a speaking coach and media trainer, shared an example of the appropriate amount of time to talk in a meeting with six people:

"I would suggest a good measure would be three contributions over an hour-long meeting from each non-leader participant. If anyone is talking five/six/seven times you are over-participating! Allow someone else to weigh in, even if that means an occasional awkward silence. Anything less seems like your voice is just not being represented, and anything over three contributions is too much."

Ultimately, the WAIT method is about taking a second to make sure you're not just talking to hear yourself speak. It helps ensure that you have a clear goal for participating in the conversation and that you're adding value for others. Knowing when and why to say something is the best way to make a positive contribution and avoid shooting yourself in the foot.

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