So, actually an awesome post, like. Super.

In my humble (humble? moi?) opinion, communicating these days is being made increasingly difficult by the continuing and continuous debasement of our language. Everything seems to be hyperbolic and hysterical. Remember when things used to be 'very' or 'extra'?  If a meal was good you could say "that was good", or if it was better than just good it was "very good" or, even, "extra good". If a meal was pretty much the best meal you have ever had in your life, you could say it was fabulous!

But nowadays everything is super good. Very and extra are now meaningless, which makes 'super' meaningless, and 'fabulous' is just confusing. Is fabulous better than super?  Super used to be as high as it got. Think about it, if you will. Marvel Comics did not create 'Verygoodman' or 'Extragoodman' or 'Fabulousman', they created 'Superman!' Unfortunately, 'Super' has been so watered down, I wonder if a present day Clark Kent could still bend steel with his bare hands or leap tall buildings in a single bound. After all he is still Superman but in a world where everything these days is super. Perhaps he'd be 'no-so-Superman'?

“I’m SUPER tired.” “She is SUPER smart.” “That car is SUPER expensive.” The word has been diluted. It is now meaningless. Sure, you could say something is very SUPER, or extra SUPER, or SUPER fabulous, but that just doesn't work. Once you throw in that “super” adjective, you know that what ever follows could very well only be ordinary, and probably is.

Once upon a time, we used to use 'literally' as a superlative. “He is literally larger than a bus!” Now we know that literally means not figuratively, so when used in this way it is clearly just a sarcastic way to say “He is huge!” It used to work. Today, people use 'literally' willy-nilly to indicate a superlative to virtually anything. “He is literally six feet tall.” Why do this?  Why not just say “He is six foot tall?” “Literally” as a sarcastic superlative has been ruined.

If you, like, say "like" too much, it can, like, weaken the impact of what you're trying to say. The slang interjection is a filler word we're all guilty of using, but it's how often you say it that makes the real difference Do you like "like"? Does it drive you crazy? To me, its overusage indicates a lazy mind.
We used to say “actually” to confirm that what follows is true even though you might think it is an exaggeration. “I actually shot par on eight holes last week.” Hard to believe, but yes, I actually did. (Not actually-actually, this is just in way of an example. Actually, I don't play golf.) Now people say actually to virtually every question. 

“What do you do for a living?” “Actually, I am a teacher.” As if being a teacher is so difficult to believe?  To me that means, “Hard to believe because I am so clearly thick and uneducated, but actually, I am a teacher.” Today, “Actually” actually means nothing.

So many words today have been ruined. Why is everything “awesome?” Is “awesome” better than “super?” Can something be “super awesome?” Why is every event “epic?” Epic used to describe an adventure that is heroic or legendary. How on earth is a night out drinking “heroic” or “legendary?”  If something is “actually” awesome or an event is “literally” epic, how do we communicate that today and still get our meaning across? While I am at it, why does the start to an answer to any question today start with “so.” “Can you tell me where the bus stop is?” “So, you go two roads up and then turn left.” SO! Why SO?

Well, I’m done. This post is literally too long and I am actually tired of writing. So, I am going to just stop. I hope you like this post. I think it's awesome but I am actually literally terrified that you will not.

And for your amusement I can offer Frank Zappa's p*ss-take of the Valley Girls (where the overuse of 'like' originated). It's performed by his daughter, Moon Unit Zappa. Enjoy.