awk-werrrrrrrd

Facebook. It all comes back to Facebook these days. We're addicted and we LOVE IT. But this particular posting isn't about Facebook as it stands... rather, it goes back to a little class I took junior year which we liked to call Grammar and LinguistiXXX (hollerrr Great Vowel Shift). Specifically, I'm talking about the terminology that we now use thanks to Facebook. Babs knows someone who doesn't have Facebook, and when we were out one time and gossipy-talking and using phrases like "he friended me" or "I wrote on his wall" or "we've been poking since April" (note to any parents: it's not what you think, I swear..) it occurred to us that this friend had NO IDEA what we were talking about. Wall? Poking? Friended?

A more important question: how can she not have Facebook?

And then there are other catch-words that aren't tied to international online social networking phenomena. For instance, the word phenomenal became the cool kid in class for a little while about two years ago (ooh look how I tied those two thoughts together). Or how about the incessant use of the words obviously or clearly and the phrase I mean... in that very particular, bitingly tongue-in-cheek tone. Maybe we could also discuss the widespread use of the abbrevs? Over Christmas break, I read the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm not even going to attempt to offer a review of the book except for giving it All Thumbs Up (J insists there is some debate of whether I have 10 fingers or 20, since I have phenomenal toes that can pick things up... so it's your call on 2 or 4 Thumbs Up), but I am going to tell you a litttttle bit about it. Basically, the book discusses the theory behind why certain things - shoes, ideas, even syphilis (seriously) - can become epidemics and spread all over the place. One of the explanations was that certain people have particular roles to play in the process.

Let's look at abbrevs, for instance. Some old high school friends who were a handful of very intelligent guys were the first people I knew to use their own little language formed around abbreviating words. Popular was pop and it was rocked out in practically every sentence. My personal fave was their use of the word deece in place of decent. And not only did they promote the abbreviation of the word, but they promoted the use of the word itself - they used it in place of cool or niiiice. Now I haven't really talked to them since the end of summer '04, and I didn't hear any more abbrevs until Miss Kristy Wilson began a campaign I'll call Abbreviation Adoration. She made you not only use but also wholeheartedly love abbrevs. Case in point: Jeanette Halstead actually typed the phrase "such a sad sitch" as in situation. Go ahead and shake your head. But my high school boys' use of abbrevs didn't spread like wildfire, Kristy Wilson's use of abbrevs did. From my outside observations, I think Mr. Gladwell (Dr. perhaps, I don't know I didn't research this) would say that K.Wil is a certain type of person who tips the trend (go you!).

Where did it start? How did it get so big? And can we please discuss the word awkward? How does everyone everywhere know exactly the right way to say it? It was huge at Etown (I mean... there's an a-dub-k-dub song... when the abbrev of the word has a song, it's big) and I thought maybe it was only Etown, but I came down here and everyone was saying it. Although in Etown's pop defense, no one down here happened to notice that the Vandy VU hand signal is actually one hand of the sign language for none other than the word awkward - only Etown PMs would use sign language in their adoration of a word. Anyway. My 7th and 8th grade girls in middle school bible study say it. And furthermore, everyone in the world it seems knows exactly the proper pitch and tone as per the specific situation. Awk-werrrd.

Rolling with awkward... The problem here is that rocking these pop words and abbrevs means that other deece but less pop words get neglected. For example, even though they are synonyms, there is a profound difference between awkward and uncomfortable. An awkward situation is something that you can laugh at internally if you take a moment to step outside the situation and look at it objectively. For example, showing up at the town diner a little tips with your group of friends and running into your ex and his current girlfriend. That's 100% laughable. Awk-werrrrd, but no sweat. An awkward person is someone who is able to be social but just a little... off? - but they're harmless and endearing and sometimes you just want to stare. There's a student who isn't a law student but took a law class last semester who is absolutely incredible - Coke bottle glasses, rigidly tall, dark hair, strange voice, accent, and vocabulary. I honestly thought he was kidding at first, but I quickly came to discover that he was 100% awkward and I told my co-worker I wanted to shadow this guy around for a day just to take it all in.

Uncomfortable is totally different. You can recognize an uncomfortable situation when you notice that your physiological condition in that particular situation becomes, well, particularly noticeable. When it's uncomfortable, every molecule of every cell in your body (forgive my probably completely improper use of scientific terms) is filled with utter loathing of the moment you're in. I'd give an example but it's much more incriminating for all parties involved to disclose an uncomfortable situation than an awkward one. An uncomfortable person is not just socially off, but socially unapproachable - it's the creepy old guy with a cigarette greasily tucked behind his ear and with ski slopes ridged into the pock-marked skin on his face who gets right up your nose to say Hiya, Sweetie, how's 'bout a hug? I made this up, but you want to turn and run don't you? It's beyond awkward, see what I mean? This has yet to be scientifically proven, however, because sometimes I would get that loathing sensation when sitting in a redudant class discussion with moronic people, and I'm pretty sure I've witnessed it happen to my dad when he's sitting in traffic - not uncomfortable, just plain-vanilla agg-rav (you know... aggravating).

And speaking of Dad, it's his birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday Dad!

Whew, I was wondering how I was going to round out this story. :)

Time to stop, I'll catch you up on my life once I take some pictures,
Laura