AAVE becoming standard lingo isn't new at all but Zoomers only knowing how to communicate in inaccurate, bastardized AAVE is due to the internet. Imo it's an elephant in the room that'll never be addressed but in chronological order here's how we ended up like this
- Big part of the online comedic zeitgeist in the late '00s/early '10s came from ignorant depictions of minorities - WorldStarHipHop, eccentric local news interviews, reality shows, etc
- Twitter gets its first influx of normies in the late 00s
- Edgy/racist parody comedy accounts become a trend; a lot of them being over-the-top depictions of Black people posting in really exaggerated, phonetic AAVE
- Black Twitter/IG emerges as daily internet/social media use becomes ubiquitous and non-Black users become exposed to different parts of Black culture
- "Parody" accounts become less popular; replaced with early meme accounts and proto-shitposters making fun of certain trends associated with Black Twitter/IG like deep fried memes, excessive emojis, etc
- People start to "ironically" use AAVE in their posts because America has a strange relationship with mocking and celebrating Black culture at the same time
- Online entrepeneurs and people behind viral marketing/astroturfing campaigns take advantage of Black Twitter/IG being a relatively new demographic and through a shitload of reasons that would take too much time to explain and would be too awkward/uncomfortable for a lot of people to read, Black Twitter/IG culture starts to skyrocket in visibility and reach
- SoundCloud rap era kicks off, shitload of new rappers gain huge visibility on the web and become c-list celebrities while sometimes introducing new slang into the cultural zeitgeist
- Influencer culture starts to be a thing, which is a mess that deserves its own timeline
- American social media culture starts to become homogenized + the product of Black culture and people not understanding (or sometimes outright mocking) Black culture
- Gen Z starts to adapt their own culture to match the online culture they've been immersed in
- Large swaths of the developing world starts to gain 24/7 internet access and gets exposed to the homogenized culture + AAVE
- Non-English speaking internet users frequently see the homogenized culture and adapt to it; AAVE being superficially seen as a simpler, looser form of English that could be understood across the web
- Young people (teens, twentysomethings) start unironically using AAVE in real life
- Shitposting culture starts to be a thing with AAVE being a huge part of it + some remnants of early Twitter-era edginess/racism. Shitposting also starts to become a universal part of online culture
- Younger Zoomers + the oldest of Gen Alpha get immersed in shitposting culture the same way older Zoomers and the youngest Millennials got immersed in 2010s online culture
- Kids start unironically saying "skibidi rizz" and stupid shit