Shook Beyond Words

For my USC Annenberg capstone, I looked at the cultural meaning of the language that young people have come to use online — phrases like “screaming,” “I’m shook,” “I feel attacked,” etc. I explored the idea that these phrases overplay our emotions and discourage us from presenting nuanced, authentic representations of ourselves online, potentially driving us further apart despite the feeling of being part of a broader internet culture.

I built this multimedia package to present the story in a novel way, including the text itself, the photos, the videos, and the web design.

A screenshot of the top of the Shook Beyond Words website.A screenshot of the “Learn the lingo” module on the Shook Beyond Words website. It enabled users to learn some internet lingo.A screenshot of a video carousel from the Shook Beyond Words website that included interviews with several teenagers.A screenshot of the Shook Beyond Words website, featuring a video of Jarod Majeika, who was a popular Vine creator.