In our super hip, technology-run, acronym-driven world, abbreviations have slowly started to take control of our Instagram captions, tweets, texts and even verbal communication. I find myself texting my mom "I've g2g I'll ttyl I have to study rn" and she simply replies, "Am I supposed to understand what that means?" It's honestly quite comical.
Another generational communication come about has been the use of words such as "literally," "honestly," "low/high-key," and "truly." It's honestly pretty entertaining to listen to people talk nowadays because it's as if we have this new way of communicating where we know exactly what we all mean without really saying much at all. If you aren't quite catching my drift yet, maybe these examples will help you to truly know what I'm saying.
When someone says "I low-key want food right now," what they really mean is that they're starving, despite the use of the words "low-key".
When someone says that they "honestly have no idea what's going on," they probably do mean that they really don't know what is going on, but they're just trying to explain to you the depth of the situation that they honestly don't know what's going on. As if without the "honestly," you would think they're lying.
When someone says "I like truly don't know what to do about XYZ", they mean that they seriously don't know what to do, but the use of the word truly is explaining that they are serious in their seriousness of how they don't know what to do. Do you know what I mean? Like, do you truly know what I mean?
I think one of the most overused words of this time is the word "literally." It has somehow become the punch line of "white girl jokes" and has literally, honestly, changed the way conversations are held. We've found these word fillers for our sentences and that have always existed, but we've turned them into slang generational phrases. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, even though I've read articles about how we shouldn't use said words in job interviews or when trying to be professional, but they have quite literally changed the way we communicate today-just some food for thought.
