When Internet Vocabulary Becomes Your Vocabulary
By Sam Kassé
Ah, that awkward moment when you start to say the thing you’ve see on the internet, in regular ever day situations. I guess, with the amount of time I actually spend online this should come as no surprise. All those gifs and memes were bound to have a lasting impact. They’ve become so ingrained, that for the most part I am unaware I am even interjecting them into my vernacular.
For the most part using internet catch phrases is not a bad thing. It can work well if you are talking to a peer who understands the origins of the remark. However, when it is someone that has no idea what you are referring to, they look at you as if you have had a momentary loss of sanity. Then comes the even more awkward situation of you trying to back track, and explain about how this thing you saw on the internet, is actually relevant to this current conversation.
With that said, in no particular order here are the top four phrases I discovered on the online, fell in love with, and adopted into my everyday vocabulary.
Like A Boss.
An appropriate time to use this phrase is when you do something semi brilliant. If you fast forward through the commercials and stop at the exact spot right before the show you are watching resumes. Or if you toss something and it lands exactly where you intended it to land. I even use it on those rare occasions I manage to makes the wings on my eyeliner perfectly even. Like a bawse!
Look At Your Life, Look At Your Choices
This is the perfect phrase to talk your friends out of potential disastrous decisions. You want to know if those shoes go with that dress? Should you quit your job? It’s 3:00 am in the morning and you want to call your ex? Look at your life my friend, look at your choices!
Haters Gonna Hate.
For those people in your life: at work, on facebook, or in the comment section of your latest ‘Thought Catalog’ article. You know the type of people, determined not to say anything nice. The ones that go out of their way to be just to be negative, either to bait you into starting some sort of argument, or just to tear you down. All one can do is stay the course, and accept that in life, there will always be haters, and they gonna do what they do best. Hate.
Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!
Probably my favourite one. I wish I had more opportunities to use it. Not only do I say it whenever I can, but I do that frantic little head shaking movements, just like Sweet Brown does in the gifs. Best used when presented with a situation you neither have the time, or patience to deal with. Oh someone on the street is attempting to hand you a religious pamphlet? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
The only thing I wonder about these sayings is if like regular ‘slang’ in time they too will be outdated. Years from now will I still be quoting gifs and sound like people who currently use words such as ‘dope’ and ‘fresh’. Knowing me, probably.