Friday

It's, like, torturing me

To get away from writing for one bit, I continue to be plagued by, not only that societies' youth use the word "like" in almost every sentence they say, but that the educational system, and the public in general, doesn't demand that we acknowledge that this is a problem.  I'm not a wordsmith by any means, but MY GOD, don't you hear this word continuously said in every day language from our youth (and even adults)?  It is driving me nuts.  In some weird way I think that the sole purpose of my life is to yell at the TV every time I hear the word said, or bite my tongue every time I hear it in public.  I can't be the only person that this word said over and over again by our youth disturbs me to no end, can I?

I must probe this problem (and I mean problem in the truest sense of the word) until someone acknowledges that this is an epidemic.  Since I know that my generation, and the generations before me, never used this word as much as our current generation of kids do, I must place myself in the world of the 13 to 25 year old demographic.  I didn't grow up in a world where everything is in reach by just picking up a cell phone.  I understand our kids are being over run by information.  In some weird way, we expect our youth to multitask just because it's the world we live in.  If I was a kid during this time, where words are being thrown at me from so many different ways, with social media everywhere, maybe I would use some word in between thoughts so I know I'm being coherent and understood in what I am saying.  But the problem with that way of thinking is to say that the youth of previous generations were incapable of taking in so much information that they weren't required to pause in mid sentence to renegotiate their thoughts.  We did, as everyone knows, end up okay.

The education system.  I'm not involved in the teaching of our youth, and I don't even think about it.   I might be completely in the dark as to how we educate our children today.  If I am totally wrong with this, I apologize.  Are we teaching our children to use the word "like" as much as they can?  Is there some workbook we're giving our children in the 2nd grade where kids are required to say, "Jack jumps over, like, something, or whatever?"  Obviously we're not.  At some point, and I'm not being ignorant to the fact that teachers don't think about kids 24-7, but someone, somewhere, must have heard their student use the word "like" in almost every other sentence at some point and say that this is unacceptable.  I picture a student/parent/teacher conference where a parent is speaking to the teacher, not using the word "like" several times in each thought, but when the parent or teacher asks the student to explain why they're not understanding the lesson(s) and the student uses the word "like" several times in explanation, why doesn't the teacher or parents stop the kid and say, "why do you use that word so much?  Have you heard me or your father (mother) say that word as much as you and your friends do?  You know that this won't be acceptable when you grow up."

Obviously, we don't teach our kids to use the word in everyday language as a way to communicate.  So I guess, we as adults, consider this a fad - that they'll grow out of it.  I can't think of any other reason for accepting this unless I'm the only one hearing it like I'm in some governmental experiment to see how far a human being can take hearing that word until I break.  I know I'm not that special.  If I am, I give in - I'm more than nuts now.   Stick a needle in me and take me away from this torture.  Please.

If only it would be that easy.  I'm not lying in saying that, after watching the first 3 episodes of 2011's Real World on MTV, the kids on that show said the word "like" over 120 times.  In one episode, the word was said 78 times.  Of course the word wasn't always used unnecessarily each time, but, even taking the fact that the word is very common, that is a, fucking, lot of time.

(In further investigation, using The Real World as an example, I noticed that the word was never said to each when the people were arguing.  It was only in casual conversation.)

Maybe, if we ignore it, it will go away.  Maybe they'll, at some point, realize that saying the word so much doesn't benefit them when speaking to adults (even parents, I hope).  Maybe they'll understand that when they speak the word inappropriately so many times that it only gets in the way of the overall purpose of the message they are actually trying to get across. Maybe everyone else will start using the word so it becomes a part of everyday language.  The next interview I go on, when asked how I could benefit the company If I'm hired, I'll say, "You know, it's, like, I'm really good at my job.  I'm, like, good at communication.  I can, you know, like, understand things better than most people.  There was this one time where, in my past job, I was telling the the employees I managed that what they were, like, doing was, like, wrong and they stopped doing it.  I just hope others will, like, follow my lead.  I'm a real good leader.  You know, like, really."

Please, help me.  Get me out of this government experiment.  Life is torturing me enough as it is.  Like, save me.

Stop Saying the Word "Like" - Wikihow

Here's Justin Bieber...



What the kids are saying...

http://www.43things.com/things/view/36490/stop-saying-like

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