I was with my wife on a college campus (unusual for us) and we overheard a student say “chat, is this real?”

It caught my attention and I tried to explain who “chat” was to my wife (blessedly offline), and realized I’m not quite sure who chat is, lol. Sort of a referent to “we the group, but amongst a larger group”? The pronoun of choice for “we” in the context of a dark forest?

love this observation

acceleration of language change one of the defining characteristics of our time