Saturday, April 29, 2017

This Word Gets The Bird

A downside to Facebook's "Memories," or "On This Day," feature is that, like targeted ads, it is incapable of distinguishing between what I want to see and what I don't want. If I look up something for research or bought a gift, I don't want similar items shoved in my face all day.  If I posted something to Facebook because it infuriated me, I don't want to revisit it long after the memory, and my attached ire, have subsided. I guess I'll remember that going forward.

On the 24th Facebook took me back to 2015 and my first encounter with "humblebrag." The Facebook reminder was my second encounter with this deplorable oxymoron. I'd have been happy to have left it at one. "Humblebrag" was created and popularized by people who have either never heard or understood what false modesty means. That is sad.

I get it. Our American English language is rooted more in usage than in rules. That can lead either to gems like hate-watch or uttered garbage. Humblebrag, however, had me walking around for days in 2015 muttering it disdainfully under my breath. Here I am again.

Thanks for nothing, Facebook.

What words do you hate? Feel free to share. I promise to hate-read them all.

2 comments:

  1. You're someone I used to know. Long ago in a land called Cleve... In an apartment on Euclid Heights Blvd. Curiosity led me to Google. Google brought me here. My name is not Dorothy. It's Liza. Congrats on The Comeback. I'm going to go buy it. I hope you're well!

    Words I hate: Amazeballs, listicle, anything with -licious appended (excepting de), totes, squee (as in I'm so excited *squee*, not of comic book fame), hella (I'm convinced this word is indestructible. Every time I think it's gone, up it pops.), and adorbs.

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    1. Hi Liza! I'm so happy to hear from you! I'm the worst moderator. Chris and I get so many spam comments on Chowbacca! that I just let them pile up until I have time to weed them out, like right now.

      I also hate those words. Well, honestly, while living in San Francisco I developed a fondness for using hella in a snide tone whenever I'd see something particularly NORCAL. Hella is, truly, the word that can not be destroyed.

      Sorry it took me so long to reply. I saw your Amazon review of The Comeback (The Callback is still in the works). Thanks so much for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a review.

      How are you? I hope you're well.

      I'm currently on the other side of a personal apocalypse on top of the plague year we've all had and while writing was not something I was capable of for so long the ideas are coming like a flood. I'm working on a variety of projects which I'll post any publication info about here.

      Again, thanks so much for purchasing, reading, and reviewing The Comeback. Sorry it took so long to tell you. I did send you a message through someone on Facebook. Can't recall who that was, but I hope they delivered it.

      Hoping to catch up with you soon. I can be reached directly at lmi (that's LMJ lowercase) @ this domain.

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