When I was growing up, there were few words more devastating than "poser." I still remember getting called one during my freshman year of high school after showing up in a pair of DC skate shoes. It didn't matter that I genuinely liked them. Someone decided I hadn't "earned" them, that I was trying on an identity that wasn't really mine. Two decades later, I still remember how much it stung. The internet has always had a vocabulary for sniffing out inauthenticity. First, it was "poser." Then came "try-hard," "hipster," and, more recently, "NPC" and "industry plant." Now there's a new favorite: "larper." SEE ALSO: Chat, are we cooked? A guide to internet slang in 2026. The word originally referred to people who participate in live-action role-playing (LARP), dressing up as fantasy characters and acting out fictional worlds. But onlin...