A brief history of (some) internet slang: hot takes

I always feel a little bit behind when it comes to internet slang. Terms seem to pop up and become ubiquitous overnight, sometimes disappearing just as quickly. In a series of posts, I will unpack internet slang and reflect a bit on how and why understanding the circulation and prevalence of internet vernacular is important.

Understanding the vernacular language of internet culture provides insight into what drives it: attention.

Attention is important not just because it affords notoriety, but also because the economic structure of the internet means it can be meaningfully translated into money. We live in a capitalist society; money is the thing.

Creating profit means exploiting both labour (e.g. freelancers) and attention.

Hot takes are an important part of both generating and exploiting attention.

Click driven online publishing models encourage inflammatory or misleading headlines designed to drive clicks, shares and engagement (clickbait).

This has created a cottage industry of hot takes, quickly generated opinion pieces tapping into a hot button issue. While opinion pieces have been around for decades, the hot take is a specific subset of the genre, and a relatively recent addition to internet slang.

According to Merriam-Webster (2018), a hot take is “a published reaction or analysis of a recent news event that doesn't offer much in the way of deep reflection.”

Hot takes are also driven by the need to be first. What makes them hot is their immediacy. Hot takes are often produced in the ‘moment of’ before the event or issue is fully played out, or context acknowledged. What makes hot makes immediate is what also makes them flimsy.

Think about a choc chip biscuit fresh out of the oven, it looks great it smells delicious, but the second you try to pick it up off the tray it will disintegrate, and possibly burn your tongue. To be truly enjoyable, it needs time to cool and solidify.

Hot takes are the same, they may look and smell enticing, but they are ultimately unsatisfying. Much could be improved by waiting, just a little bit. If this is true for eating biscuits, it is certainly true for comment on divisive and complicated issues.