Yesterday I found someone who says “question mark” after every question and has apparently forgotten how to inflect their voice to express tone. It was horrifying, but I realized I’m not that different. I immediately think “cringe” or “based” at many things. Even when I’m not terminally online everything I hear gets put on a meme template by my brain. I’m having trouble expressing tone/emotion in writing without visual indicators like emojis or “/s.” I know I’m not alone, what do we do?
Honestly I don't see the problem with talking like this.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that not being able to inflect their voice to express tone isn't a bad thing but tbh I can't imagine that is/was caused by internet usage. If I'm wrong, then that's fucked and it must be a severe, severe case.
But regarding the based and cringe thing, there's nothing wrong with using that terminology, especially if it's around people similar to you. Those words were a pretty common thing to hear among my friend group for a while and I still drop them every once in a while regardless of where I am.
Expressing tone through text is notoriously difficult, that's literally why those indicators were developed. Nothing wrong with using them.
Language, just like society and the economy and everything else, develops and changes with the times and conditions. I won't say there aren't serious risks and problems with skibidi toilet for 7 hours a day brainrot or constant stimulation from the moment you pop out of the womb, but dumbass lingo has always been around, specifically among youth. So pretending that it's a crisis to be using it is just a little silly to me. Not to shit on your post or anything I just mean like, I don't think you need to worry about this as much as it seems you are. The person you're talking about might though.
It's also not like you'll be stuck in one form of communication; at least I'm not. I often switch from brainrot, to how I'm typing normally now, to speaking with serious intellectual effort.
TLDR; don't be afraid of language and it's development, it's always going to seem stupid or unserious at first but it's literally just a more complex form of communication being made as time passes.