The role of 'slang' in popular culture has fundamentally changed because of the internet. Since the emergence of Standard English, the rule makers of language have been in charge, and their prescriptive norms about a 'correct' version of the English language have dominated our channels of communication. If you wanted your voice to be heard by the public, you had to work within their limits, conforming to the strict expectations of either print or broadcast media. Social media completely broke that barrier. The playing field is now level, and public access is democratized. Anybody and everybody can become a public figure on the new communicative platforms, meaning that nobody's left to enforce the old rules. TV presenters and journalists might not have been able to use slang, but content creators can. We regularly use words like 'function' and 'side-eye,' and our influence both legitimizes these terms and gives them a large platform to spread quicker than they could have before. Content creators also come from a greater variety of backgrounds than people working in traditional media. This means that slang can more naturally go beyond the economic and social barriers that once limited its growth. The loose social networks that previously connected us geographically are simply stronger online, and memes are now transmitted at rapid pace.