The Out of Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Does 'Code Rot' Mean?

This week's Out-of-Touch guide takes a look at a phenomena that's probably going to define the lives of generations of young people: Code rot—both actual computer-style code rot, and the more elusive cultural kind. I'm also taking a look at the fake controversy over the "cancellation" of Freddy Krueger, and finally, bringing things home with viral videos of boyfriends dancing.

What does "code rot" mean?

Expect to hear young people talking about code rot for awhile, maybe for the rest of their lives. It's a concept that's going to affect them more than any previous generation. Code rot, or software rot, describes what happens to a computer program when the hardware and operating system it runs on advance. If older programs aren't updated, they become less stable and glitchy until they eventually become unusable.

The idea of code rot has really caught on in the young people's popular imagination, probably because they're going to spend a lot of their lives dealing with it. They've even taken the idea of code rot into life, and use the phrase to describe anything that is worn out or malfunctioning. If the ice cream machine isn't working at McDonald's, it's code rotted. Bad grades on a report card? Code rot.

Kids are making videos where they demonstrate actual code rot:

or point out physical things that are code rotted, like a cat:

or their school:

Interestingly, a lot of the online discourse around code rotting concerns the massive video game platform Roblox. Because Roblox games there are made by users, there's often not a lot of incentive for the creators to keep the games current with the platform's changes, so a lot of Gen Z's childhood memories of playing games are sinking into code rot. Here's a video about it:

Another interesting wrinkle is the tone these videos take. Code rot is seen as apocalyptic. While it's mostly hyperbole, I think part of it is the realization that the entire world is code rotted. The old programs that used to run within the "Western Culture" operating system no longer apply and everything is starting to glitch out.

What does "PDF file" mean?

The meaning of "PDF file" depends on the context. If you're at work, it refers to a Portable Document Format file, a format created by Adobe that is famously hard for older people to open. In slang, though, PDF file is algo speak for "pedophile." Because that word is flagged by moderation software online, people say "PDF File" to skirt the censorship.

Why was Freddy Krueger (supposedly) canceled?

The run-up to Halloween brought a lot of online discourse about Nightmare on Elm Street villain Freddy Krueger. The supernatural serial murder/PDF File was supposedly cancelled online by overly woke, Gen-Z Tiktokers outraged that he is a child predator. The controversy started with a post from Entertainment Industry Reporter that points out how strange it is that in the '80s and '90s, Freddy Krueger, depicted in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a child murderer so driven by bloodlust he transcended death, was featured on dolls, board games, and lunchboxes aimed at children. It's a good point, but not a call for "cancellation."

Although the article does say that "Freddy Krueger lunchboxes shouldn’t exist," and that parents "shouldn’t have been buying their kids action figures of a child murderer," this is not a call to action. It's not suggesting cancellation of any kind, and it's hard to even conceive of what cancellation of a fictional character in an old horror franchise would even mean. The article is actually an observation about how merchandising (and low-quality sequels) change the meaning of art. But people online missed the point entirely and invented a scenario where "woke" young people are calling for the cancellations of a fictional villain for doing bad things.

I've been scouring TikTok, looking for even one video where someone is calling for "canceling" Freddy Krueger, and I can't find any, but there are hundreds, maybe thousands of videos like this:

In these videos, people point out how enraging it is that the woke people are calling for Krueger's cancellation and vowing that they won't let it happen. Even though it is not happening. There are even levels to the myths about woke mobs canceling Freddy. Supposedly, younger users were unaware that Krueger is depicted as a "PDF file" as well as a murderer in the 2010 reboot of the franchise, so there are online arguments about whether that's the reason he's being canceled. Even though no one is canceling anything. These anti-woke folks are, ironically, defending a fictional villain from cancellation by creating another fictional villain, the shadowy woke mob that's ruining horror movies. Meanwhile, the real villain is a lack of media literacy. Saying "wow, it's crazy that previous generations made a comedy mascot of such a terrible character and marketed him to children" is not the same as cancellation.

Viral videos of the week: My boyfriend is a diva

This week's viral videos are of boyfriends dancing. The newest thing on the TikTok is young women sharing video of their boyfriends getting down accompanied by a clip from the song "gay alligations fr. my girlfriend" by TikToker OH MICKEY. Like this:

or like this:

It's a simple, silly template that maybe doesn't mean a whole lot, but this generation of young men are so messed up when it comes to relationships and masculinity, I'm always happy when a meme becomes popular that indicates that young women want goofy dudes, dudes who know how to dance, and dudes who act silly as boyfriends more than they want red-pilled, manosphere, looksmaxxing types. I don't know if these kinds of messages ever really "break through" to the underground of internet incels, but I like to hope they do, because a lot of young men are not OK.