30 Jul 2010Tags: I am neurotic, language, rants
Every now and again a phrase or word will pop up and before you can turn around it is EVERYWHERE, like it had always been there, grinning at you smuggly from its pop culture corner. Mostly I hate these words and phrases.
Exhibit A – “Meh” – I’m pretty sure it’s not a word. And it’s an incredibly short way of saying I don’t really agree with what your saying but I can’t be bothered to actually articulate why. It’s lazy and disrespectful. Oh, I get that I’m a word snob. I do. But I like it.
Exhibit B – “just saying” – you’ve just said it. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to remind me that you’ve just said it. But really, I think it’s just a way to speak your mind candidly and then minimise it somehow. If you want to say something. Stand behind it. As I’m writing this I’m suddenly feeling like the most humourless person on the planet. But I’ll continue on, because humourless or not, it still grates on me like nails on a chalkboard.
Exhibit C – The most prevalent one of all – “First World Problem” and more insidious than you might imagine.
Here’s the thing – everything is a first world problem (in a developed country). So what exactly is this whole first world problem thing about then? You give up the right to complain, feel something, experience pain or have a gripe because you’ve got running water and aren’t starving to death? Yes, I’ll admit it is often used to acknowledge that you are experiencing a problem within the context of being quite privileged. I get that. But because it could equally be applied to pretty much any problem anyone could ever have, big or small, it’s completely meaningless. And to add insult to injury, this particular phrase has the ability to amble around the concrete jungle, minimising and invalidating feelings left right and centre because they’re not serious enough. Did you get that? Your problems aren’t big enough.
And it’s not just confined to this whole first world problem labelling craze. It’s everywhere. Had trouble trying to conceive? You don’t get to feel bad because some people have actual, diagnosed feritility problems. Boyfriend beat you up? Well that’s not nearly as bad as some women who are killed by their significant others. Child having a tantrum? I’m pretty sure those kids on Supernanny are having worse ones.
That’s what I hate about it. Because at the end of the day, unless I’m being stoned to death, drinking toxic water and dying of a preventable disease, I don’t get to have an actual feeling unless it is 100% positive. And that is some kind of bullshit. People have feelings and they don’t need to be judged or minimised into non-existentence. And it doesn’t take long before you start accepting things into your life that you shouldn’t if you are constantly consumed with being so fucking grateful for living in a developed country. Because if you have no ‘real’ problems, then you never have to change anything.
Ami (1)
Belinda (1)
Lindsey (1)
You are SO right, and we’ve become a society of one-uppers in that way, I think. If I had a health scare, then at least half the people I would tell knew of one EVEN WORSE and so on.
Meh? Yeah, for the longest time I just thought my teenage son was mumbling and then he tries to tell me it’s a word now. Hmm, I’m thinking it’s not.
I’m glad I’m not the only one!!
I have to admit, I use “meh” and “just sayin’”, but mostly only on FB and Twitter where they are for fun.
“Meh” to me has always been more of a sound effect than an actual word, like when I say “hmrph”.
“Just sayin’” I tend to add to links to things I want. Example…post a link to a cute necklace, add that my birthday is coming up…just sayin’ ;D.
It’s a cutesy stupid thing I’ve done for far too long. I guess it’s almost as annoying as my never-ending “dot dot dots…” and emoticons
I do try to keep the cute to a minimum on my blog, though sometimes I fail miserable.
BTW, the only place I’ve seen the last is in the twitter hashtag #FirstWorldProblem where it also seems to be used in a joking manner. Though, I will agree that telling someone that their problems are less valid because they have so much, is like saying you have the good kind of cancer. When something sucks, it doesn’t suck less just because there are people out there worse off than you. That I cannot stand!
As usual, you’ve articulated something I’ve been thinking too. I try hard to be positive and want to focus on the fabulous in my life but in doing so I’ve almost wracked myself with guilt for feeling crappy or not as grateful as I know I should be. You’re right, the negative, the things that are problematic in our lives are not made less so by the fact that others have it worse. We can only live life through our own paradigm after all.
I must admit to using “meh” in the sense that if I feel wishy washy about something it’s a phrase that helps me say so. You’re right though, it’s a lazy way of offering no opinion. Personally, I’m one who is easily annoyed by the acronyms like LOL. They drive me crazy!
Great post – I tend to use way to many smiley faces and I still write lol (although sometimes I use “hahaha.” I don’t say “meh” but I used to say “w00t” until recently when I began saying “Yay” or “Hurray” – never said “powned” and I’m glad that one died (or maybe I just quit playing online games – regardless, I never hear it anymore, which is a good thing.
I agree with Amber that “just sayin” is often used in conjunction with an obvious hint..However, it is overused and eventually will be replaced by something equally overused. I don’t hate the phrases, but have no love for them either.