19 Everyday Words That Didn’t Exist in Missourians’ Vocabulary 30 Years Ago

Imagine going back to 1995 and asking someone to “DM you a selfie of their latest meme.” They might hand you a pager and walk away confused.

Our vocabulary has changed as quickly as our technology. Entire categories of words didn’t even exist three decades ago.

Here’s a look at the terms that feel like everyday language to Missourians now but would’ve made no sense thirty years ago.

Selfie

In the nineties, taking your own picture meant stretching a disposable Kodak camera as far as your arm could reach. Half the time, you cut off someone’s head or got nothing but forehead.

The word “selfie” hadn’t even been invented yet.

Now, selfies are second nature. People snap them at restaurants, concerts, and even in grocery store aisles. It’s a cultural staple right alongside French fries and Starbucks lattes.

The rise of front-facing cameras sealed the deal.

Suddenly, everyone had the ability to be their own photographer without guesswork.

Dictionaries eventually added “selfie,” confirming it wasn’t just a fad. It’s here forever, whether we like it or not.

Podcast

Thirty years ago, people had talk radio and cassette tapes of motivational speakers. The idea of downloading episodes and listening whenever you wanted wasn’t even a thought.

Now, podcasts cover every niche imaginable.

From true crime to cereal reviews, there’s a podcast for everything, and Americans eat them up like late-night Taco Bell.

What makes podcasts so different is the control. You can pause, rewind, or binge them on demand. That’s something radio never offered.

The word itself is so common now, it’s almost hard to believe people didn’t say it until the early 2000s.

Binge-Watch

Marathons existed, but you were at the mercy of the TV schedule. Watching six episodes of Friends in one night wasn’t possible unless you had a stack of VHS tapes.

Streaming changed that forever.

Netflix and Hulu practically invented the idea of burning through entire seasons in a weekend. Suddenly, marathons became personal and limitless.

The word “binge-watch” captured the new reality, and it stuck. It made sense instantly, even to people who had never done it before.

Now it’s normal to confess you binge-watched an entire series, and nobody bats an eye. They just ask, “Which one?”

Meme

In the nineties, “meme” was an obscure academic term you’d never hear in conversation.

Kids weren’t swapping memes. They were swapping pogs.

Now, memes are the internet’s favorite way to communicate. From distracted boyfriends to SpongeBob screenshots, they spread faster than playground rumors.

What makes memes unique is how they evolve. One picture can spawn a hundred jokes, each one funnier—or weirder—than the last.

You can’t scroll for two minutes on social media without running into at least a dozen. Memes became the inside jokes of the entire internet.

Emoji

Before emojis, you had 🙂 or 😛 if you were feeling creative. That was as good as it got.

Texting had no personality beyond that.

Now, entire conversations happen without a single word. People text pizza slices, laughing faces, and red hearts instead of writing sentences.

The little icons took over, and nobody can imagine texting without them. They make digital conversations faster, clearer, and way more fun.

Even brands got in on it. Domino’s once let customers order pizza by tweeting a pizza emoji. That’s how far emojis have come.

Hashtag

For decades, it was just the pound sign on the phone. Nobody thought of it as anything else.

Social media reinvented it as the hashtag, a way to link conversations and start trends. Suddenly, the humble # was leading revolutions online.

Now it’s so common that parents accidentally drop them into real-life conversations, much to their kids’ horror.

Hashtags even became marketing tools.

Companies like Coca-Cola and Nike use them to spark campaigns and track their reach.

Ghosting

In the past, if someone stopped calling, that’s exactly what you said—they stopped calling.

Now we call it ghosting, and the word fits perfectly. It describes the eerie silence of unanswered texts and vanished dates.

Dating apps helped the word explode, but it’s not limited to romance.

Friends, coworkers, and even business contacts ghost one another.

It’s a word that captures a universal experience, which is why it’s stuck around.

Stan

Thirty years ago, Stan was just your neighbor’s name. Then Eminem’s song gave it a new meaning.

Now “to stan” means to obsessively support someone or something. People stan celebrities, sports teams, and even snack foods.

It turned a proper name into one of the internet’s most versatile verbs.

The word also created a culture of “fandom” that brands use to their advantage, encouraging customers to proudly stan their products.

Influencer

In the nineties, only celebrities and TV commercials had influence. Nobody was calling random people “influencers.”

Today, anyone with a large online following can hold that title.

From makeup tutorials to unboxing toys, influencers drive trends.

Brands now budget for them like they once did for magazine ads. It’s become a legitimate career path.

The word itself shows just how much power ordinary people gained through the internet.

FOMO

The feeling existed long before the acronym, but people just said they “felt left out.”

Now, FOMO captures the anxiety perfectly. It’s why people scroll Instagram at midnight or say yes to every invite.

The word is short, punchy, and instantly understood. That’s why it caught on so quickly.

Even companies use it.

Retailers drop “limited edition” products to fuel FOMO and drive sales.

DM

People used to simply “send a message.” Nobody was sliding anywhere.

Now, “slide into my DMs” is part of modern dating language. Direct messages have become a private back channel on every platform.

The letters alone are enough. Nearly everyone knows what they mean.

DM is shorthand that works across Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

It’s proof that fewer letters can mean more communication.

Flex

Once upon a time, flexing meant showing off muscles. That’s still true, but the meaning has expanded.

Now people flex new cars, fancy vacations, or even spotless pantries online. The bragging moved from gyms to Instagram feeds.

It’s bragging with a modern twist, and the word grew right alongside social media.

The funny part is people even say “weird flex” when the brag doesn’t make sense.

The internet always finds a way to remix words.

Cancel Culture

In the past, celebrities got into scandals and maybe lost jobs, but nobody said they were canceled.

Now “cancel culture” is everywhere.

It’s shorthand for the collective decision to stop supporting someone or something.

Agree or not, the phrase is locked into everyday talk. You’ll hear it on the news, in podcasts, and at the dinner table.

It shows how quickly society creates words to explain new behaviors.

Swipe

Swipe used to mean stealing or running a card. That was it.

Dating apps flipped the meaning completely. Now people swipe left or right to pick potential partners.

It’s a single word that redefined how people talk about dating. Even people who don’t use apps know what “swipe right” means.

That cultural leap is why the word stuck so easily.

Viral

Viral once meant flu season. You didn’t want it.

Now it means the exact opposite. Everyone wants their content to go viral.

It’s the dream of every TikTok creator and YouTuber.

The medical term became cultural currency, thanks to the internet. It’s one of the biggest word flips in modern times.

Now you’ll hear “viral” used in classrooms, newsrooms, and boardrooms.

Unfriend

Back in the day, you just stopped talking to someone. The word “unfriend” didn’t exist.

With Facebook, it became a button, and with that button came a verb.

Dictionaries eventually added it because the word was everywhere. Even people who never used Facebook know what it means now.

It shows how much online platforms shaped language without us even noticing.

Clapback

People used to say “comeback,” but clapback carries more bite.

It’s sharp, witty, and often public, usually on Twitter.

A good clapback can go viral in seconds.

Celebrities are practically graded on how good their clapbacks are. Some even build their reputations on them.

The word added a new layer of sass to everyday arguments.

Adulting

No one thirty years ago said, “I’m adulting.” You just paid bills and grumbled in silence.

Now the word makes chores sound like a part-time job.

People tweet about cooking dinner or scheduling dentist visits under the banner of adulting.

It stuck because everyone can relate. Even CEOs sometimes joke about “adulting.”

The word gave younger generations a funny way to admit that adulthood feels exhausting.

Cringe

“Cringe” always existed, but it was about physically recoiling.

Today, it’s about secondhand embarrassment. Bad TikToks, awkward jokes, and outdated outfits all get labeled cringe.