I ask because I caught myself being a huge hypocrite again.
I’m a millennial and I criticized a Gen Z friend for her constant use of the word ‘lowkey.’
I then realized do I not do the same thing? I often say ‘sorta’ or ‘kinda’ when I do just mean I did the thing in the same way she uses ‘lowkey.’
No, I didn’t ‘kinda’ delete a guy’s account at my stupid IT job. I DELETED HIS ACCOUNT! I didn’t ‘sorta’ leave too late for work. I FUCKING LEFT LATE!
So I am a massive fucking hypocrite who needs to just let Gen Z chill and do what the want as I am the same flavor of asshole, but what about you?
Why use more word when less word work
For decoration, signalling emotional state, and to play with words.
unga bunga, genius!
No, I mean I don’t use them needlessly or whatever. I kinda use them to sorta let my thoughts buffer.
I mean like it’s kinda like fuck man like you know like it’s kinda sorta like fuck man like fuck you know man like sorta kinda like fuck man like fuck man you know like it’s kinda like-
The curse-filler version of the rainbow wheel.
For some reason, I have an incredibly difficult time not saying like.
I bet if there were a word cloud of mymost commonly used words of all of my posts, “like” would be the sun in my fucking word solar system.
Do you
needlesslyuse filler words?Yes I use needless filler words, but i use them because I need them ;)
Low key is a really egregious one though because it is not designed to be a filler word. The thing about filler words is that every adverb is a filler word, as neuroneiro points out. Using them less makes you sound confident and precise. Sometimes they are useful or necessary. But by definition - a filler word. It is likely our overuse of adverts which trains us to use filler words like sort of, low key, kind of
I grew up in a house with a swear word jar, and a filler word jar. The swear word jar worked differently than most. We didn’t put a quarter in every time we used a swear word. We put a dollar in every time we use a swear word incorrectly or as a filler word. According to my parents, “profanity should be used as punctuation and emphasis, not decoration.”
The filler word jar worked like a normal swear word jar. $0.25 in the jar for each and every filler word we used. Since this was in the '80s and '90s, we learned to think about what we said before we started speaking.
I like the extra verbosity. When used in moderation anyway. A little bit of seasoning for my sentences.
I rather enjoy the greatly increased verbal verbosity that can be attained. However, I do generally prefer this effect when attained in relative moderation, it must be said. This way i provide only a small, tolerable, amount of verbal seasoning to the sentences i produce.
Yes, I definitely do. It’s because my brain runs quite slowly, slower than I talk. So I often need to put in filler words to let my brain catch up. Or I repeat the same thing I just said but in a different way.
It’s odd how the brain can kindof pre-load the mouth with a sentence, then while the sentence is playing, it hunts for the next sentence to cue. If the next sentence is not ready yet, then the mouth goes into autopilot. It puts in filler words to make the sentence longer, and loops back on other things I’ve already said.
The filler words do carry meaning just not content although using them every time establishes a new baseline. They can be used to convey vibes, to harden, soften or communicate lack of confidence for example.
If you kinda/sorta deleted a person’s account, you still deleted the account but you are implicitly saying you didn’t mean to for example. Lowkey can be a modifier to mean you don’t feel strongly about something.
Yes
Wouldn’t call it ‘needless’ exactly.
Hmm, well, uh, maybe?
I, you know, low-key do sometimes, ahem, use, like, some, ahem, filler, ahem, you know, words, right.
No really, I do. Not as bad as above “sentence.” But I tend to sprinkle some “basically” and “just” into each comment I make.
And yes, I hate when others do it.I sometimes correct zoomers if something is actually high key.
I use "umm… " and “uuuh…” to let my thoughts buffer when I talk.
I would like to think I don’t use filler words but this is a good opportunity for some self reflection. Thank you.
