[spoiler]*A Wild Gringo has appeared*[/spoiler]
Hello Offtopic, I would like to bring something up that has been bugging me recently. To explain I will start with some examples I have encountered recently.
[quote]😂 you are kidding me right?[/quote][quote]lmao are you that stupid?[/quote][quote]that is literally the funniest thing I have ever heard[/quote][quote]That is cancer[/quote][quote]I cringe.[/quote]
What do all of these have in common? Are they people responding to a stupid post I made? Well, yes but they're an example of the strange way in which adjectives and exclamations are being over used. Allow me to explain. Lets use one of the examples above [quote]lmao are you that stupid?[/quote]
The part I would like to bring to your attention. It starts with "lmao" which means "laughing my ass off". Now the context of this is unimportant but I can assure you, it wasn't funny enough for someone to say they are "laughing their ass off". But that is a weird trend in society. We have to say the most extreme of things. If something is remotely funny and you grin after reading it, it deserves an LOL. If you dislike something it is "literally cancer". Sentences where people argue are just prefaced by and ended with "😂", and it is ruining communication.
For those of you who don't know, an adjective is a word used to describe a noun. For example, "The [b]black[/b] dog." Adjectives are used to allow for more detailed descriptions of things, allowing you to better judge them through communication. Lets say that someone asks you about how you enjoyed the following movies (everyone has their own opinions but for simplicity I listed them from worst to best):
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pixels
Batman V Superman
I Am Legend
The Matrix
Pulp Fiction
The Godfather
To this I respond,
[quote]Avatar: The Last Airbender was aweful, Pixels was very bad, Batman V Superman was fine, I Am Legend was good, The Matrix was really good, Pulp Fiction was great, and The Godfather was amazing[/quote]Even if I didn't list them in order, from what I said, using the adjectives given, you could very easily tell the order of my preference. But what if I said, [quote]Avatar: The Last Airbender was shit, Pixels was shit, Batman V Superman was shit, I Am Legend was amazing, The Matrix was amazing, Pulp Fiction was amazing, and The Godfather was amazing[/quote]It becomes a lot harder to rank them. That is why we have so many different adjectives, so we can separate one thing from another.
But in society today, everything is to the extreme. Something funny is hilarious, something bad is cancer, something dumb is retarded, something good is amazing, etc. If I watch Anchorman and call it "hilarious" and then go to see Monty Python and The Holy Grail and call it "hilarious". Despite that I find Monty Python much funnier, my choice of description for both makes the use of an adjective at all useless. If every comedy I watch is hilarious", then there is no way to gauge when something is better than another, making any description pointless.
This isn't just for adjectives. As I showed above, "lmao" has turned from "laughing my ass off" to something you have to use to preface everything you write just because. The overuse has made it lose all meaning.
By overusing words and phrases, we rob them of their meaning and make them worthless. We then discard them in favor of something even more extreme, only to overuse it and move on.
How much longer until it is impossible to convey an idea?
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Edited by unknownuserh: 10/13/2016 9:14:07 PMShould've started with the bigger problem here in offtopic, your and you're
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AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER WAS AMAZING!
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[quote]for example, the black dog[/quote] HEY HEY MAMA SAID THE WAY YOU MOVE, GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT GONNA MAKE YOU GROOVE
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Let me ask, how is "lmao" an adjective? If anything, it's a verb. [spoiler]Technically, it's a verb, adjective, noun, then adverb. That's only if you wanna get super technical though.[/spoiler]
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Anything with Emoji deserves to die.
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Edited by Iyrha: 9/18/2016 6:18:10 PMLMAO LOL ROFL CANCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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If you listen to a liberals argument, it's all adjectives and no substance. They think they sound smart.
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😂lmao😂this post is shit😂your stupid
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The only thing is that it would be nice and I don't have to go out and about a year earlier and I don't think I have no idea how I feel so good.
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Good food for thought. I have always tried to refrain from overusing such expressions for this very reason. Your metaphore involving the movies was especially potent. Quality post, OP.
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People are starting to over use "I'm dead".
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I'm sorry.
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Edited by Cultmeister: 9/19/2016 9:08:30 PMThis is not the vocabulary apocalypse, we will continue to create new words, discard shitty ones that weren't working and use old words for different meanings. Pretty soon 'dope' won't be synonymous with weed anymore. I mean it's going that way anyway, but that's just how language evolves. Either it sticks like 'cool', or it gets forgotten like 'radical' or 'x is the bomb'.
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Why does the dog have to be black?
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This is the first logical post I've read in a long time. It serves to be educational for those who listen as well. 10/10
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😂😂😂😂😂👌👌👌👌👌👌Truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
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The matrix was amazing though
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You misspelled "awful"
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Inb4 unironic use of emojis
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You are quite right. I have lmao'd [spoiler]did I do it right?[/spoiler]
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Truth hath bein spoken!
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Congrats you've discovered the importance of a strong vocabulary
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Op is poorly spelled stick bundle
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I never use those anyway, unless for satire.
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Thank you.
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Why did you even bother to post this? Are you one of those grammar goons who thinks he or she knows when to use a semi colon? Or were you just really starving for attention? No, I didn't read it because I'm seriously much too busy:).