If it feels like you need a translator to talk with your teenager, you're not alone. Between all the shooks, lits, fires and fams, many of us parents are lost, too.

"Language is a lot like fashion," says Mary Kohn, an associate professor of English at Kansas State University who studies the intersection of language and culture.

"Teens coin words and slang partly because using their parent's jargon would be a lot like wearing mom's jeans. They would come across as old-fashioned and out of touch."

Sometimes teens use coded language to keep their parents in the dark, say by using sneaky texting acronyms teens to hide communication from adults such as 53X for "sex," or CD9 for "code 9, parents around."

But that trend may be waning. Teens can now use disappearing Snapchat messages and "Finsta" (fake Instagram) accounts without parents stumbling upon them.

"Parents used to go through their kids' text messages, so they would use slang, emoji or abbreviations more," 17-year old Lauren Trujillo of Oakland says.

Story Date: August 20, 2018