I have often wondered what it is about people that causes them to adopt every new little thing that develops in pop culture vocabulary. I'm thinking of two terms in particular, though there are many.
Who thought it was a good idea to reframe "tips" and "ideas" as "hacks"? I know it stems from computer hackers, who slice through computers and network systems to have their way with them. Some seem to romanticize them, to consider them a sort of resourceful band of merry men. Anyway, can we do away with "hack"? It's everywhere, and it's ugly.
To hack is to destroy, to chop up. It's also slang for violently coughing up something. I don't want to hack my life. "Life hacks" is just a ridiculous term. And now the word "hack" is being applied to everything from weddings to pregnancies to parenting to careers. It's absurd how the populace just accepts juvenile things like this without any consideration.
The next term I am annoyed by is "game-changer." One of my close friends used it the other day. I don't remember what her "game-changer" was, I was so thoroughly annoyed by her use of the term. Life is not only to be hacked, but now apparently it is just a game. "Game-changer" has replaced more accurate terms like solution, problem-solver, brilliant idea, answer, and other whole phrases that could be used to articulate something that resolves a cluster of life issues. The use of "game-changer" points to a general tendency to not only over-simplify, but to do so by hyperbole. It's also an example of the dumbing-down of the English language. There are many examples of course. This is just one that I really can't stand.
I've already given my two cents about "mansplaining" and "manspreading." Hacks, game-changers, mansplaining and manspreading all affect us on the subconscious level, giving rise to depraved imagery. It's all ugly and uncouth. There was a time when adults spoke properly and popular slang was used only by the youth. As young people matured, they dropped their poor habits, speech being just one. Nowadays, frivolity, tackiness and immaturity know no age boundaries.
I had a text message conversation with an old friend the day after my birthday. We were discussing how it feels to be 33, and how we don't feel like we've attained the badge of adulthood that our parents wore. We couldn't put a finger on why. There is just something more mature about our parents' generation. She said that even though she is more responsible than her mother had been, she still feels like her mother is more of an adult than we will ever be. I know what she means, even if I don't understand it. I was dismayed that in the course of our discussion she used the phrase, "I adult," meaning "adult" as a verb, the taking on of adult responsibility. I hate that. It is just as bad as hacking and game-changing. I am seeing so many of these noun-to-verb transformations, in marketing, social media, and now, regular conversation. How do people not see that it's turning us into a nation of fools? And she wonders why she doesn't "feel adult."
I am not sure how to bring back intelligent speech to this society. I myself am not impervious to popular culture's overhaul of language. When in agreement with someone, I find myself saying "Riiight?" with a valley-girl inflection. I caught this disease from a coworker years ago and haven't been able to eradicate it. Another friend of mine had a good laugh about how we catch ourselves peppering our conversations with silly adolescent turns of phrase. At least she and I are aware of it and trying to reform. My parents would never speak this way. None of my friends' parents would either.
It seems that even the youth of the past spoke better than we do. I hear it in old movies and newsreels. They had better articulation and inflection, and used a larger vocabulary. Even as recent as the 1980s. I think the 1990s, my time, was the beginning of this steep drop in proper speech. I look to my father in particular as a model for speaking. He would instruct me in elocution, especially when I was practicing for spelling bees. My mother (and sister) had the Bakersfield twang and redneck grammar. "Me and her went to the store." " I woulda went, but..." "I got some Cokes for she and I."
My sister is actually worse off in this department than my mother, probably for generational reasons. My sister's decade was the 1980s. She is, I believe, a product of her early involvement with the very white-trashy ex-brother-in-law of mine. Certain Bakersfield folk speak more properly than others. Older Bakersfieldians, like my grandmother and others closer to 80 than 60, have a country sound to their speech, even though they generally speak with proper grammar. Younger Bakersfieldians tend to sound more valley-girl. One sounds Okie, the other sounds like Los Angeles. I have worked to rid myself of the SoCal sound. I don't know if I've succeeded. I like to think that I have enough of my father's midwestern accent to round things out. I want to inspire others to speak well.
God bless us all, and Tiny Tim (as Dad would say).
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