My kids say, “I was like…” all the time. And it fucking pisses me off. [Full disclosure: I say it all the time.]
“I was like…”
Whatever happened to “I said…”? or “I turned to her and replied…”? or “I looked at him and basically screamed that…”?
It’s all, “I was like…” now.
It’s a verbal simplification that will destroy the minds of man. Over time. All of us.
The simpler we make things, the stupider we make things. Consider the tweet or Ikea. We find so that the mind doesn’t matter more and more. Design for the dumbest among us. The quickest fixes. The quality falters.
And what? Hope for the best?
Luke Soiseth 
I know! You can hear a monologue running thus:
“And I’m like duh and she’s like whatever and I’m like no way and she’s like yes way and I’m like…”
Answers to all this?
1] Do your best to raise language awareness.
2] If it’s your kids doing it, next time they do it in public flap your arms and squawk like a chicken very loudly. Keep on doing this and embarrass the hell out of them. They’ll stop eventually. Nothing disciplines a kid like an embarrassing parent.
3] Don’t do it yourself.
M
__________
Marie Marshall
author/poet/editor
Scotland
Somehow I replied to me above. 🙂 Embarrassment goes a long way with parenting.
I totally agree! When I read your post I was like: “Amazing!”
On a more serious note, do you think oversimplification is the cause or the effect? Is oversimplification dumbing us down or are we getting dumber and thus oversimplifying?
Good question! Did you ever see the article “Is Google Making us Stoopid?” I think it was in The Atlantic? Anyway, it began with the writer saying that he realized that he wasn’t finishing longer books and even very long articles and he brought that up with friends and many had the same experience (myself included, although not among his friends). We are consuming information in these tiny amounts online and becoming unable to then consumer larger amounts. It was all pretty anecdotal and I don’t know if they ever followed up with any real data but I’m still thinking it’s true. Even this paragraph is quite the long slog for me to write. Must. Rest. Now. Thanks!
I fully intend to impress that chicken upon my children out in public! Thank you for that. And I really do need to stop doing that myself. It’s a disease. 🙂
Yep. Go with the chicken. 🙂