By Clarissa Olsonm Posted February 22, 2019
There is nothing more bothersome than inane repetition, and hearing the same thing over and over again; especially the exact same word. Literally. In fact, that very word is used so often that it no longer has any meaning. Still, we constantly use it, abuse it, and spit it out like gum. The word “literally” is a waste of time and seemingly the limit of our vocabularies.
Once the word “literally” comes up in a conversation, it’s usually about the time that I tune out. To be honest, it just sounds dumb. When teenagers open their mouths and the same word seems to tumble out with every sentence, we have a problem. Do we not have a creative bone in our bodies?
There are 171,476 words currently used in the English language, yet we only seem to be able to make use of one. It’s literally so annoying. We literally use the same word literally every time we speak. Like literally. I’m like literally over it.
Wasn’t that irritating? Vexatious? Aggravating? It may be hard to believe, but synonyms are things that exist. There is more than one word for every situation, so we really don’t have to use the word “literally,” every single time. Mind-blowing, isn’t it?
Instead of saying, “This word is literally overrated,” you could substitute words like “really,” “absolutely,” “positively,” “decidedly,” “definitely,” “unquestionably,” or “unambiguously,” if you want to go for the gold. Better yet, you could even omit the word entirely. “This word is overrated,” is so much better, is it not? It actually sounds decent, and it’s not annoyingly repetitive. What a concept.
“Literally,” is only one such word. Like, OMG I’m like literally shook. This word stuff is trash. TBH it’s dumb, fam. I’m dead. Using words wrong? So not savage. Oof, Bruh, it would be nice if you could like, english correct.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Our overuse of vocabulary is showcasing our incompetence and lack of originality. We need to figure it out
