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"Literally" The Best Thread Of All Time Ever


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My greetings.

 

For clarity purposes, I made this thread to ask about how hyperbole became such a common thing in our daily lives (and specially on the internet)- my apologies for the confusing title, but I coudn't think of anything better... Regardless, I imagine most of you understood the joke.

 

The thread title is false... I would not claim to have made "literally the best thread ever" in a serious manner. But we do a lot things, literally, that we don't actually do literally. 

 

On the internet, the amount of overstatements, "the best thing ever", and people literally dying from laughter at a specific thing is almost suffocating. It puzzles me.

 

I would be very delighted if you could help me theorize about why this happens. Thanks for the attention,

 

Shiro-chan.

 

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Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

So yeah as others have said below, people use hyperboles to emphasize their point. 

Passionate about something? Say it's the best thing in the universe.

Try not to be too bugged by it about it :P

(Old response)

Eh?

People like trolling

/thread.

Hyperbole ftw!

~~

One of my favorite hyperboles occurs in the pro-scene of the game League of Legends.

Whenever someone makes a huge play everyone's all like "X person's a GOD!!!"

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It helps people cope with their own insignificance by turning away from insignificance itself and treating everything as more than it is. People who aren't able to develop a coping method usually don't last very long, so through natural selection those who have adopted a proper coping method tend to survive compared to those who don't. I believe a more technical answer would be "to relieve stress" or "distract oneself". This of course is not the only coping method that exists, but is an example of an applicable one. 

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It's a way of emphasizing how much you're enjoying something or to draw attention to something you're currently into. Some people can just be overly enthusiastic. When it comes to  things like movies/games/etc I don't find it to be that irritating.

 

It's more of a problem when it comes to politics, race, public policy, and other more serious things.

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It's a way of emphasizing how much you're enjoying something or to draw attention to something you're currently into. Some people can just be overly enthusiastic. When it comes to  things like movies/games/etc I don't find it to be that irritating.

 

It's more of a problem when it comes to politics, race, public policy, and other more serious things.

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This isn't going to blow your mind, but I think it's fun. It's entertaining to hype(rbole) things and say they are more than what they really are. I don't subscribe to the 'dealing with our insignificance' theory. (And I wonder what the analogous 'not surviving' is in Meph's example >,>).

 

Things I do for fun... definitely include talking something up.

 

Using hyperbole from time to time is acceptable, it enchances the language. However, using it all the time beats their purpose... How can something actually be extraordinary if everything is described as extraordinary, even the most mundane daily activities?

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Literally isn't too important in the discussion. It is about how hyperbole became so common... I apologize if I wasn't clear enough about that.

However, It does puzzle me that hyperbole in american culture has such a strong effect and is used so often that "literally" became a word that can be used to talk about something non-literal. 

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Using hyperbole from time to time is acceptable, it enchances the language. However, using it all the time beats their purpose... How can something actually be extraordinary if everything is described as extraordinary, even the most mundane daily activities? The amount of "masterpieces", "brilliant, unparalled works", "gorgeous works", etc. I see in one week is almost impossible to ignore. This amount of hyperbole is not common in my language, though it definitely was in english when I visited the US. If so, why it's so common for americans yet uncharacteristic in other places? 

 

Probably because America is the best country in the world, obviously.  :Kappa: We just see everything in that filter. Literally.

 

 

Seriously though, I don't know if it's as common as you're making it. At least from this single perspective.  Or maybe I don't pick up on it so much since it doesn't bother me.

Though, I'll admit the misuse of the word "epic" is a pet peeve of mine. 

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That's like asking why do trends happen. They just do, for whatever reason. Like Gangnam Style. Remember that?

I don't have an exact reason for you as to why hyperboles became so prominent as you say, but I guess if I were to give a reason it would be because it's an easy way for people to emphasize their points?

Don't fret too much about it and how overusing hyperboles devalues its meaning and whatnot. You are going to be puzzled for all eternity if you try to find reasons for everything people do :P

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Seriously though, I don't know if it's as common as you're making it. At least from this single perspective.  Or maybe I don't pick up on it so much since it doesn't bother me.

Though, I'll admit the misuse of the word "epic" is a pet peeve of mine. 

 

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That's like asking why do trends happen. They just do, for whatever reason. Like Gangnam Style. Remember that?

I don't have an exact reason for you as to why hyperboles became so prominent as you say, but I guess if I were to give a reason it would be because it's an easy way for people to emphasize their points?

Don't fret too much about it and how overusing hyperboles devalues its meaning and whatnot. You are going to be puzzled for all eternity if you try to find reasons for everything people do :P

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It's a glaring different from the place I live in and other places I visited (Europe aside... It's more common there too). 

What also surprised me is that your products do that too. So many spices with crosses and skulls, or saying that "you'll die if you eat this", products referring themselves as amazing, old spice commercials, products saying they're so good that "you will never want to use another brand again", etc. 

 

Media here don't seem to do this too much. It happens from time to time, but in most cases you'll hear a commercial saying that a product is "good".... International products aside, but those aren't too popular here. They tend to be taken as dishonest and untrustworthy.

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O.K., your first mistake was even considering taking Old Spice commercials seriously.  I'm pretty sure even Old Spice itself doesn't take their commercials seriously. 

 

I mean seriously look at some of these:

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I am majoring in sociology, so it's a bad habit of mine... I have a fair amount of fun with these questions. If they are annoying, I apologize. 

 

I do ask to myself about why trends happen. Most of them happen to have a fairly obvious reason(s), save for a few that last for a really long time and need to be looked into with more care.

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Think about this for a moment...

The title of the thread has the word "literally" in quotes (quotation marks), and you know right away that the word "literally" isn't going to be used in the usual literal way but in some other way.  And then, in writing this, I ended up putting quotes around the word "literally" so that it wouldn't turn into a modifier of "has".

You know, like:

"Say your name five times"

"Say 'your name' five times"

It gets pretty confusing.

But I think that because "literally" means "literally" and also quote marks mean "literally", the two instances of "literally" (one which is the word "literally" and the other which is the quote marks "") cancel each other out and that's how you know to take the title of the thread figuratively instead of literally.

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Using hyperbole from time to time is acceptable, it enchances the language. However, using it all the time beats their purpose... How can something actually be extraordinary if everything is described as extraordinary, even the most mundane daily activities? The amount of "masterpieces", "brilliant, unparalled works", "gorgeous works", etc. I see in one week is almost impossible to ignore. This amount of hyperbole is not common in my language, though it definitely was in english when I visited the US. If so, why it's so common for americans yet uncharacteristic in other places? 

 

Heh, have you heard of a comedian called Jimeoin, who mocked people's tendency to leap the gun? So somebody says

 

"I found $50 just lying on the pavement." The listener's eyebrows swiftly flies up into their hairline 

"Really?" 

"Yes. And there's life on Mars!"

 

And now the listener is screwed because there's no place left for his eyebrows to go XD. "Where'd you find the $50?" he asks.

 

The same principle is applied here, with everybody trying to one-up everybody and everything else there is nowhere left to go. "Spiderman was the best movie ever!" Then Iron-Man comes out "Iron-Man is like the best movie in the entire universe in all of history!" Then the Avengers comes out and the ante MUST be upped! "It was so good I like... DIED in the cinema." Oh NOES Avengers 2 is here "I literally felt my heart stop beating for a couple of minutes" And then Avengers 3. Where does our intrepid conversationalist go now? "The movie killed me with its sheer awesomeness. Then I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and when I came out the other side I was in an alternate universe, and that movie was better than anything in this universe AND that universe combined. I came back to life just to tell you this."

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I'm not a fan of changing dictionary definitions to accommodate stupidity. "Literally" is being used not only in a way different to its original meaning, but in a way completely opposite to it. It would be like if people started saying "yes" to refuse something, and "no" to accept something. And then who edits dictionary's being like "welp, people are using the terms this way now, better change it."

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xjka07o1-0

 

Beat me to it. Parks and Rec is hilarious, and that's how I view people that use the word this way. I don't mind exaggerated use of something I hate if it's clearly making fun of something. For example: Tsunderes - bad. Nichijou tsundere - hilarious.

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