The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Is 'Sharking'?

It's summer, when young people throw away their schoolbooks and go a little wild. For this generation, though, going wild has a different definition than it probably did for you. Instead of wine cooler-soaked beach parties, today's kids are "sharking" on social media, breaking AI systems for fun, and emulating the styles of a previous generation. But hey, digital rebellion is still rebellion (kind of) and kids will always find a way to wring some life out of whatever nightmare they happened to have been born into.

What does "sharking all summer" mean?

If you hear a young person mention "sharking all summer" it has nothing to do with fishing for great whites. "Sharking" is slang for looking for people to hook up with. It's generally used by young men in reference to women, but it's not necessarily gender-dependent. Here's the originator of the term explaining it:

Of course the term was parodied:

And dances were created:

But is the term "sharking" problematic? It's undeniably objectifying and predatory, but my culture vibe-sense is telling me that those kinds of concerns are losing culture currency among younger people: Kids are either loosening up or devolving, depending on your point of view. Case in point: Jersey nails and Y2K nostalgia.

What (and why) are "Jersey Shore nails?"

Young gentlemen sharking this summer may be looking at young ladies wearing "Jersey Shore nails": that is, gaudy, glittery and attention-getting nails like the kind they used to wear on MTV's early 2000s reality show Jersey Shore. Think long acrylic nails with fluorescent animal prints, chrome tips, glitter, and any other bling you can imagine. Here are a few examples.

The infamous "duck nails":

Actual Jersey Shore Jersey Shore nails:

Jersey Shore meets My Little Pony nails:

Jersey Shore nails are part of the larger trend of Y2K nostalgia. Something about the excesses and debauchery of turn-of-the-century popular culture appeals to young people. In response to the "sad beige and scolding" style of a lot of millennial culture, the pendulum is swinging toward the more outlandish and debaucherous style of the early 2000s, so lots of baby doll tees, mesh, low-rise jeans, and layers. So many layers.

As with all nostalgia trends, there's another level. The younger people into the aesthetic generally didn't live through the real thing, so their interpretation is way off, and it says as much about them as it does about the early 2000s. This video demonstrates the conflict between "TikTok Y2k" and "Real Y2K" perfectly:

What does "my 90 in a 30" mean?

"My 90 in a 30" (and variations like "My 90 in a 35," and "My 100 in a 30") is a way of describing a song that makes you want to speed in your car. Kids are making videos where they share a song with the text "my 90 in 30" in videos like these:

Glitching out ChatGPT goes viral

With the school year over, kids aren't using ChatGPT to "help" with their homework any more; they're making it say ridiculous things and glitching it out on purpose. The originator of the trend, ChatGPT Says Things, uses a text-to-speech version of ChatGPT to make videos like this

and this:

Before long, others piled on with their own variations, like these:

Like everything with AI, it's hard to say exactly why ChatGPT blurts out random words and unrelated sounds instead of just doing what it's told to. I'm sure there's a terrifying explanation, but regardless, I like that younger people are using technology in ways its creators did not intend. It's a little shot of rebellion, an injection of humanity into the digital hellverse where these children live. It also breaks the spell of AI. Artificial intelligence can seem eerily human, and it's encouraging that kids are making and sharing videos about how AI is just a weird machine. It's like taking a glimpse behind the curtain at the great and terrible Oz.

The rise of AI Bible stories

Everyone has to reckon with the information age—even God. Religiosity is down sharply in Generation Z, with 34% of them reporting themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared to 18% of Baby Boomers. Enter the AI Bible Influencers.

A trend is growing online where folks are using AI to create videos that imagine what it would be like if Biblical figures were on TikTok. For example, here's Moses parting the Red Sea:

And Mary documenting her famous pregnancy:

How about Eve having been freshly cast out of the garden of Eden?

Is there something sacrilegious about depicting Mary saying "Like, subscribe, and pray?" It feels like it. I enjoy these videos, though. It's an interesting, thought-provoking use of AI, even if it's jarring to my ex-Catholic sensibilities to hear Gen-A brainrot slang coming out of Jesus's mouth. You could see these clips as commodification of the sacred, but on the other hand, if there is a God, he's in AI and on TikTok too, and how else would He talk to young people except with their language? I asked God what He thinks of this kind of content but I haven't heard back.

Viral video of the week: Girl sings Moana on a plane

The video below has been viewed over 34 million times since it was posted less than a week ago on TikTok. It documents a young girl serenading the passengers stuck on a Delta Airlines fight that was delayed for over two hours.

Whether this is a heartfelt moment of human connection in an alienated world or the worst travel nightmare imaginable depends on your point of view. I'm somewhere in the middle. It's cute to watch a kid realize a dream, she doesn't butcher the song, and what else would I have to do on a crowded flight anyway? But on the other hand, she sings for a long time. As TikToker Brody put it in the comments, "It does get to a point." There's a reason "leave 'em wanting more" is a show biz commandment.

The comment section might be more dramatic than the video. The consensus among viewers is "Oh my god. Please don't let this ever happen to me," but the poster of the video defends the impromptu performance tirelessly. I don't know for sure, but it could be one of her parents.