Zynternet

English

This English term is a hot word. Its inclusion on Wiktionary is provisional.

Etymology

Blend of Zyn (“a brand of tobacco-free snus”) +‎ Internet. Coined by journalist Max Read in 2024 (see quotation below).

Proper noun

the Zynternet

1. (neologism) An online subculture associated with sports betting, frat culture, college sports, and consuming Zyn (a brand of tobacco-free snus).
   • 2024 June 28, Max Read, “Hawk Tuah and the Zynternet”, in Substack‎^[1], archived from the original on 2024-07-06:

     But Hawk Tuah's broad success as a meme is less about its own intrinsic qualities than about the increasing size and cultural power of something I'm going to call the Zynternet. ¶ Over the last ten years or so, a broad community of fratty, horndog, boorishly provocative 20- and sometimes (embarrassingly) 30-somethings--mostly but by no means entirely male--has emerged to form a newly prominent online subculture. This network is adjacent to the "sports internet" of 40something dads and the "hustle internet" of Miami crypto bullshit and the "reactionary internet" of trad influencers, but is its own distinct community with its own distinct cultural referents--college sports, gambling, light domestic beers, Zyn nicotine pouches--and influential personalities and media outlets, among them Dave Portnoy, Pat McAfee, Antonio Brown, and Call Her Daddy, in addition to dozens of minor podcasters and hey-fellow-kids content creators who nearly all work for sports-betting concerns.

   • 2024 July 3, Katie Notopoulos, “'Hawk Tuah Girl' has our attention. Next, she would like our money.”, in Business Insider‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Insider Inc., →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-07-06:

     The Zynternet, which helped propel Welch to fame, may already have a good spot waiting for her.

   • 2024 July 3, “How the Right Won the ’’Hawk Tuah’’ Girl”, in Slate‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-07-05:

     If you're a member of the Zynternet—which is to say, you do not advertise precise ideological stances, your Instagram stories are not constantly paneled with causes you care about, and you tend to wield the internet for the pursuit of pleasure and nothing else—then you will be perceived to be right wing.

See also

• hawk tuah

 

Further reading

• “Zynternet”, in Know Your Meme, launched 2007