Little Wonderings' Blog

Words.

May 4, 2011 at 11:18 am (Uncategorized)

“Wow, that’s awesome!”

“Great job!”

“That’s incredible!”

“So cool.”

“You’re fantastic!”

^ Sound familiar? ^

These are phrases we hear all the time.  We hear them used to express people’s feelings about nearly everything.  ”It’s such a cool movie.”  ”That was a fantastic shot!”  ”Did you see that move?  That was so cool!”  In fact, we hear them so often that even when spoken in sincerity, the words become cliche.  They seem to lose their meaning.

We even use these for fillers.  When we find ourselves conversing with unfamiliar individuals, we tend to say “cool” “awesome” and “sweet” under our breath… a lot.  We say these things in order to let the person know that we’re listening.  Which is polite, I suppose.

But do we really mean it?  Is the fact that we’re having spaghetti tonight genuinely “awesome“?  Are you really awed upon learning what you’re having for dinner?

I’d like to submit that many of us are responsible for hurting souls because of our own lack of a meaningful vocabulary.  Why should Grace believe that you actually think she’s “incredible,” when you use that same word at least 7 times a day?  Why should Blake believe that you appreciate his hard work when you say “nice job!” to everyone – even people who didn’t do as well as he?

You wonder why Samantha’s countenance falls when you compliment Mercy.  Didn’t you just speak encouraging words to Samantha, too?  Well, did you use the same words or expression?  Words lose meaning and significance to an individual when they are distributed too liberally.

When Katie hears phrases overused, she begins to believe that no one means what they say.  So any truth people may speak to her concerning her beautiful nature falls short.  She doesn’t believe them.  She doesn’t believe anything but the negative words.  Interesting, how quickly someone believes the negative rather than the positive.  Maybe because people aren’t as quick to express the negative… so those words aren’t cliche.  Therefore, they’re taken for truthful expressions of people’s beliefs.

See how that works?  There’s a word-epidemic.
Words people don’t believe even when they’re true: beautiful, slim, strong, sweet, cool, popular, loved, admired, liked, talented.
Words people do believe even if they’re not true: ugly, fat, weak, stupid, unloved, hated, slow, unappreciated.

So now Katie only believes the negative words he’s heard about herself… and the ones she’s heard in her own head.

As a side note, I think that the internet has had a lot to do with this word-epidemic.

idk, but if ya think ’bout it, vocab isn’t vry importnt online ’cause u dont have to wry bout speling or punctuashun cos every1 can read abbreviations. oh, & we like speed, so we don’t use very big words to tell what we want to say.

Say what you mean, mean what you say.
Use your language with grace and skill.
And care enough about people around you to actually change.