KOCHI: Pithy statements often pack a heavy punch. One such line attributed to Oscar Wilde is a classic example: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Being authentic is one of the toughest existential challenges mankind has faced. The concept of authenticity has captivated philosophers and writers for centuries. Our true natures remain a mystery to us.
Getting to the core of authenticity can be like the tale of the monkey that went on peeling the onion to figure out what was ‘inside’. Or, like removing brushstrokes of paint, one by one, from a canvas to examine what lies beneath.
The philosophy of authenticity holds that we are not born with fixed identities. Here comes another pithy line, this time, from Jean-Paul Sartre: “We are condemned to be free”. This freedom, while empowering, leaves us the option and responsibility to define ourselves through our choices and actions.
In today’s world, the digital age presents new challenges to authenticity. Social media platforms often push people, sometimes subconsciously, to present curated versions of themselves, leading to feelings of inadequacy — and inauthenticity.
Besides the philosophical aspect, it is also an age of constant bombardment of inauthentic information and images that can have profound ramifications. No wonder that Merriam-Webster has picked ‘authentic’ as its word of the year.
It’s three in a row. As discussed in previous editions of this column, the Collins dictionary chose ‘AI’ as its word of the year, and Cambridge went for ‘hallucination’. Now comes ‘authentic’, a concept further threatened by AI.
“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” Peter Sokolowski, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, notes in an interview with the ‘Associated Press’. “What we realise is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”
Meanwhile, the dictionary’s editors highlight that authentic has always been a heavily searched word. “Authentic has several meanings including ‘not false or imitation’, a synonym of real and actual; and also ‘true to one’s personality, spirit, or character’,” reads a note with the Word of the Year announcement.
“Although a desirable quality, ‘authentic’ is hard to define and subject to debate — two reasons it sends many people to the dictionary.”
With the sudden AI blitz, searches for the word ‘authentic’ have shot up like never before. It certainly reflects the search for authenticity in these baffling times.
“And with the rise of artificial intelligence — and its impact on deepfake videos, actors’ contracts, academic honesty, and a vast number of other topics — the line between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ has become increasingly blurred,” the Merriam-Webster editors add.
On a personal note, I am quite perplexed and a tad concerned seeing the rising trend of journalism students brazenly submitting AI-written articles as their works.
Maybe it’s a culture shock of sorts, I must admit, for someone who still prefers manually writing stories, before keying it in on the computer. I still cherish a collection of handkerchiefs with fountain pen ink smudges, something my editor-in-charge at home loathes.
Perhaps, the next-gen tames tech better. However, considering the nature of the profession, I wish the numerous journalism schools out there pay attention to this tricky grey area between technology and ethics.
Sokolowski captures the general concern in a nutshell: “Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don’t always trust what we see anymore. We sometimes don’t believe our own eyes or our ears. We are now recognising that authenticity is a performance itself.”
Moving out of the grey zone, we have got quite a colourful term as the Oxford Word of the Year 2023: ‘rizz’.
The dictionary defines rizz as “style, charm or attractiveness” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”. It can be also used as the phrase ‘rizz up’, which means “to attract, seduce or chat them up”.
Oxford Dictionary says ‘rizz’ is believed to be a shortened form of the word ‘charisma’, taken from the middle part of the word, like ‘fridge’ from ‘refrigerator’ and ‘flu’ from ‘influenza’.
“Our language experts chose rizz as an interesting example of how language can be formed, shaped, and shared within communities before being picked up more widely in society,” explains an introductory note from Oxford University Press.
“It speaks to how younger generations now have spaces, online or otherwise, to own and define the language they use. From activism to dating and wider culture, as Gen Z comes to have more impact on society, differences in perspectives and lifestyle play out in language, too.”
Oxford Languages president Casper Grathwohl highlights that the word ‘rizz’ “boomed on social media”. He believes it could be an indicator of “a prevailing mood of 2023, where more of us are opening ourselves up after a challenging few years [pandemic] and finding confidence in who we are”.
“Rizz is a term that has and speaks to how language that enjoys intense popularity and currency within particular social communities — and even in some cases lose their popularity and become passé — can bleed into the mainstream,” Casper adds.
“This is a story as old as language itself, but stories of linguistic evolution and expansion that used to take years can now take weeks or months. The spike in usage data for rizz goes to prove that words and phrases that evolve from internet culture are increasingly becoming part of day-to-day vernacular and will continue to shape language trends in the future.”
I was reminded about this reality a few days ago, as a regular reader of this column mocked me with an ‘OMG’ when I asked her what ‘IKR’ was. And another one with whom I discussed this embarrassment rubbed it in with ‘IDGAF’.
Okay, time for me to go peel the onion, you guys have a rizz-whizz weekend!
Leaving you with Oxford’s shortlist for Word of the Year 2023:
Swiftie vs de-influencing
Swiftie: an enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift.
de-influencing: the practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or of encouraging people to reduce their consumption of material goods, esp. via social media
Beige flag vs rizz
beige flag: a character trait that indicates that a partner or potential partner is boring or lacks originality; (also) a trait or habit, esp. of a partner or potential partner, viewed as extremely characteristic, but not distinctly good or bad.
rizz: style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.
Heat dome vs prompt
heat dome: a persistent high-pressure weather system over a particular geographic area, which traps a mass of hot air below it.
prompt: an instruction given to an artificial intelligence program, algorithm, etc., which determines or influences the content it generates.
Parasocial vs situationship
parasocial: designating a relationship characterised by the one-sided, unreciprocated sense of intimacy felt by a viewer, fan, or follower for a well-known or prominent figure (typically a media celebrity), in which the follower or fan comes to feel (falsely) that they know the celebrity as a friend.
situationship: a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.
(Swiftie, prompt and situationship were the other three that emerged as final contenders for the top spot.)