The article examines the problem of modern genre studies related to the methodological crisis caused by the discrepancy between classical approaches to the challenges of natural and digital communication. The authors identify a number of key problems: terminological instability (the use of pseudo-terms such as “flirting”, “prayer” as scientific concepts, interdisciplinary eclecticism (different interpretations of the genre in linguistics, literary studies, journalism) and methodological rigidity inherited from the essentialist paradigm.