Overused

Last night I wrote about the under use of 'Thank You'. Some words get used to much. When I was in high school, it was 'like' and 'ya know'.

"I, like ya know, called him and like, his mom answered and was like ya know he's not here right now."

I know my English teacher friends are grinding their teeth! I hate to admit, but I do use 'like' as a filler. Not as much as say, a Valley Girl, but I know I use it more frequently than I should. I also tend to use 'awesome' a lot. Sometimes I have found it is the best word to describe what I'm feeling, or the best response. I guess it's a generational thing.

Lately, I have noticed absolutely being used a lot. To the point of over use. I cringe every time I hear it. Sometimes it is when I call members or prospects at work. If the person I'm trying to reach isn't available, and I ask to leave a message, the secretary or assistant says 'Absolutely!'. It is always said with a lift at the end, as if the person speaking were jumping up in the air. (Remember the old Toyota commercials where people jumped up into the air? That's what I imagine these people doing.) Just once I'd like to hear someone say 'Not a chance in ****'. Ya know?

I noticed this word being used a lot on the news too. I come home for lunch, and I watch the noon news on the Cincinnati ABC affiliate. The noon news does not have as much 'hard' news as the 6:00pm news. It has more lifestyle type stories. It is actually two shows, the '9 News at Noon' and the '9 News at 12:30'. In the course of each half hour, the anchor may have 1 or 2 different people (or groups of people) in the studio that they are interviewing over a little table. "Tell me about your event, yada yada" , "How can we get tickets?" You get the idea. The person being interviewed will answer with "Absolutely...." Again, with the lifting of the last syllable. Maybe they sat on a tack? I wonder if some Producer is schooling them (Maybe my friend Mitzi, who is a TV Producer could weigh in). It's odd that everyone is using this word suddenly.

What happened to sure, of course, or even certainly? Why is everyone saying absolutely? It makes me want to scream, or to hand them a thesaurus. At the very least I would like to know I don't live in a world of mindless drones saying 'Absolutely' to every thing.