The act of signalling exclusivity or secrecy, even when there’s no substantial reason. It mimics in-group dynamics to create a heightened sense of importance, often leaving outsiders feeling excluded, even when the content is trivial.
Super-signalling can be thought of as a kind of unintentional gaslighting. The term comes from the 1938 play Gas Light, where a man drives his wife to the brink of insanity by gradually dimming the lights in their apartment while pretending that nothing has changed.
Super-signalling operates similarly, although more subtly. There’s really nothing there, yet our very human Fear Of Missing Out is triggered. While gaslighting is deliberate, super-signalling is often unconscious—those engaging in it are likely unaware of the (super) signals they’re transmitting.
The behaviour is rampant on social media. Vague status updates, cryptic tweets, or ‘stories’ that hint at something significant without revealing any details are the digital equivalent of those whispered huddles. They tap into our instinct to belong, leaving us wondering what we’ve missed.
The same is true for airy corporate slides with conspicuous stamps of saying “CONFIDENTIAL,” when it’s apparent that they contain little of substance.
Or scientific presentations where heavy smoke screens of technical jargon obscure the fact that the subject being studied is actually quite inconsequential.
As Gertrude Stein once quipped: “There’s no there there.”
Super-signalling operates similarly, although more subtly. There’s really nothing there, yet our very human Fear Of Missing Out is triggered. While gaslighting is deliberate, super-signalling is often unconscious—those engaging in it are likely unaware of the (super) signals they’re transmitting.
The behaviour is rampant on social media. Vague status updates, cryptic tweets, or ‘stories’ that hint at something significant without revealing any details are the digital equivalent of those whispered huddles. They tap into our instinct to belong, leaving us wondering what we’ve missed.
The same is true for airy corporate slides with conspicuous stamps of saying “CONFIDENTIAL,” when it’s apparent that they contain little of substance.
Or scientific presentations where heavy smoke screens of technical jargon obscure the fact that the subject being studied is actually quite inconsequential.
As Gertrude Stein once quipped: “There’s no there there.”
by SlowThinker October 26, 2024
Get the Super-signalling mug.Superfrequentism is a paradigm which proffers a 1-to-1 relationship between the infinite number of perimeter-points inside of a non-Tarski shape and the infinite number of perimeter-points outside of a skeuomorph.
Super-frequentism proposes a bijective relationship between the internalized perimeter-points of a non-Tarski space and the externalized perimeter-points of a skeuomorph.
by zanderfin November 10, 2021
Get the super-frequentism mug.Weatherman: Today is Super-Fridge weather, with widespread temperatures of -40°C, -50°C is likely and -55°C is possible.
Minecrafter: Wow, I didn't know that Super-Fridges existed, but do they really work at -40°C or at -50°C?
Product Reviewer: Yes they do. In fact, four of them work at temperatures as low as -115°C!
Minecrafter: Wow...
Minecrafter: Wow, I didn't know that Super-Fridges existed, but do they really work at -40°C or at -50°C?
Product Reviewer: Yes they do. In fact, four of them work at temperatures as low as -115°C!
Minecrafter: Wow...
by Herobrine Richter May 23, 2019
Get the Super-Fridge mug.Slurping any and all substances stupid-style from any orifice or hole on the body of another, these substances could include the following:
-period blood
-cum
-melted mozzarella
-Feces
-cheese
-lube
-machine coolant
-engine oil
-aphtodisiac
-period blood
-cum
-melted mozzarella
-Feces
-cheese
-lube
-machine coolant
-engine oil
-aphtodisiac
by OGfeltcher April 28, 2025
Get the Super feltch mug.by Personal Blend June 4, 2007
Get the Super Bogus mug.Oh? No? Not one of yours? I don't think one mine would have say 'If there's no transcendant meaning, then we're animals.' I mean... If your transcendant meaning is to spread your genes into the future then how are you not just an animal? If transcendant meaning (for everyone) = spreading genes then how do you not consider everyone else animals? That's what animals do. Spread genes. Yeah, no, he's a plant. He basic spreads (what is essentially) YOUR THING (Jordan) from the Atheist side of things. He doesn't have a self (apparently). He's a human strawman. Him and Destiny. You're boosting people to live publicly as human strawmen with a picture of my face stapled to the front.
by Hym Iam March 30, 2024
Get the Super Boner mug.Your partner grips the bed headboard whilst you lift her legs up in the air wheelbarrow style and go to town on that shi until she screams "fly away like SuperDog!"
When she grabbed the bed headboard i just had to hit the Super-Dog on her
From JanteeLimit44 and NigNut97
From JanteeLimit44 and NigNut97
by NigNut97 May 30, 2025
Get the Super-Dog mug.