I ask because I caught myself being a huge hypocrite again.
I’m a millennial and I criticized a Gen Z friend for her constant use of the word ‘lowkey.’
I then realized do I not do the same thing? I often say ‘sorta’ or ‘kinda’ when I do just mean I did the thing in the same way she uses ‘lowkey.’
No, I didn’t ‘kinda’ delete a guy’s account at my stupid IT job. I DELETED HIS ACCOUNT! I didn’t ‘sorta’ leave too late for work. I FUCKING LEFT LATE!
So I am a massive fucking hypocrite who needs to just let Gen Z chill and do what the want as I am the same flavor of asshole, but what about you?
I try not to. When I catch myself doing it, I remind myself not to.
No
I’m ready for people to move on from describing 85% of things as “unhinged”.
My fave was when a GenZ said, in all seriousness, that they were ‘starting to think Andy Warhol was LOWKEY obsessed with celebrities’!!!
I, like, totally do!
We’re all hypocrites, it happens, just don’t let it happen with important shit.
Wouldn’t call it ‘needless’ exactly.
For sure, I do. I also think that’s normal, because you sometimes need filler to let your brain catch up with your words. The filler words I find annoying are the ones that don’t “fit” the context, but that’s subjective, and younger people probably think “low-key” fits more often than I do.
I, you know, low-key do sometimes, ahem, use, like, some, ahem, filler, ahem, you know, words, right.
No really, I do. Not as bad as above “sentence.” But I tend to sprinkle some “basically” and “just” into each comment I make.
And yes, I hate when others do it.I wouldn’t call you a hypocrite, let alone a massive fucking one, but definitely self-absorbed and guilty of overgeneralizing one person to a whole generation - which is not only grossly inaccurate but I think is more significant than being annoyed by throwaway words, which is more of a little pet peeve. Do you srsly categorize your friends as “my GenZ friend” or “the boomer guy I work with” etc? That’s kinda fucked up, and I say “kinda” because it’s not like you burned down an orphanage or anything.
I grew up in a house with a swear word jar, and a filler word jar. The swear word jar worked differently than most. We didn’t put a quarter in every time we used a swear word. We put a dollar in every time we use a swear word incorrectly or as a filler word. According to my parents, “profanity should be used as punctuation and emphasis, not decoration.”
The filler word jar worked like a normal swear word jar. $0.25 in the jar for each and every filler word we used. Since this was in the '80s and '90s, we learned to think about what we said before we started speaking.
I’m the opposite in a way, I tend to look for a specific word and when I can’t find it right away it can make for awkward pauses in my speech. I’m working on it.
But when I was younger, sure, tons of filler words. It gets better
I prefer the pause. Especially when it’s followed by thoughtful responses.
Yes
Short and to the point. Gotta hand it to you.
IRL I often use too few filler words and get perceived to be blunt or direct. So I think there is a middle ground.
like, totally!
I’ve been pretty aware of fillers from an early age and had a similar problem
I come from low socioeconomic so often a few words was enough. As I have grown and travelled I have adopted fillers, esp when writing. I often feel like I use too many which feels like I am betraying my natural way of communicating. But this also boosted by my likely ADHD. It’s usually too much, or too little, I just can’t get that middle ground.
So, similar background, and my issue is that, as I’ve traveled, widened my circle, and now (in my late 30s) made my way into higher education; I somewhat refuse to use the expanded vocabulary that these more “sophisticated” circles prefer. I feel like I’m exposing myself to thee parts of society in order to bring the better parts of it and ways of thinking back to help build my preferred community, but knowing that the only why I can bring it back is if I maintain the “local lingo” if you will. Otherwise, I feel I’ll be seen as an outsider.
I think I may have gone pretty hard and to the left of what we were originally talking about…but this is the internet, I may have just needed to scream into the void. Idk, but that constant strive for a middle ground is a familiar feeling.
You can adapt how you speak to the people you’re talking to. In fact most people do that somewhat automatically, but you can consciously encourage it to happen more fully.
I do to a point, but there is intended refusal on my part when speaking with those that I get the impression that they do so to be impressive, especially in higher ed.
In a big believer in knowing how to and practicing the ability to speak to the least formally educated among us is a more valuable skill than is using the longest and most sophisticated words I can muster. I know the words, and I CAN use the words, but why? Especially if it runs the risk of someone around me feeling like they can’t or shouldn’t engage due to societal pressures of inadequacy. Fuck that noise.
I have often felt like I don’t belong in the space I am occupying for similar reasons, I would hate to be the reason someone else felt that way.
I understand that and unfortunately the industries I work in expect waffle and showiness. The weird thing is in almost every exit interview my bosses tend to mention the appreciated my frankness. It must just slip out. I do get tired of the pretentiousness. It may not be that for a lot of people but that’s how it feels, like a linguistic game.
It’s only when I see “lowkey” used to mean the exact opposite of its intended meaning, and without being sarcastic that I get annoyed. If it’s hella loud and/or flashy, that shit is not lowkey, kiddos.
Eh, think about “bad” in the 90s.
I’m not sure I see how the two are comparable here.
