This study employs Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of cultural capital, habitus, and field to dissect the symbolic exclusionary dynamics between Z-generation internet slang and older generations’ linguistic competence in social media ecosystems. Through a cross-linguistic discourse analysis of youth neologisms (e.g. Chinese ‘yyds’, English ‘stan’, Japanese ‘tsundere’) and their intergenerational misinterpretation patterns, this research constructs a three-dimensional Linguistic Distinction-Generational Habitus framework, revealing how slang functions as a form of embodied digital capital and theorising the mechanisms of symbolic violence in algorithmic cultural fields.. The framework illuminates: (1) how digital-native youth deploy slang as embodied cultural capital to establish symbolic boundaries within online fields; (2) the habitus clash between pre-digital linguistic norms (prioritising standard language) and digital-native norms (valuing fluid, ironic expression); and (3) the mechanisms of symbolic violence through which youth assert decoding hegemony via slang’s rapid semantic turnover. By situating these dynamics within Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic power’, the study reveals that internet slang functions as both a marker of digital literacy and a site for reproducing generational cultural hierarchies. Cross-cultural case comparisons demonstrate how linguistic practices in digital spaces become arenas for negotiating generational legitimacy, with implications for understanding intergenerational divides in tech-driven societies.