Perhaps people are trying to positively influence their own emotions when they describe their experiences in hyperbole. Sort of like people who smile and then feel happier.

On the other hand, the winter olympics are on now and I’ve been saying a very justified “AWESOME!” pretty frequently in the last couple of days!

This is a huge issue now. Everything is overhyped, so everyone, who doesn’t think for themselves, starts adopting the habit. They then overhype their lives, achievements, etc.

The big problem is if you don’t do it you look like a loser, which can impact the job you get, the friends you hangout with, your dating pool, etc.

Basically, we shouldn’t need to communicate with an additional step. It would be interesting to see who is doing the overhyping…introverts or extroverts, or both. I would assume extroverts, as the overhyping goes against the core of most introverts.

@Linada – Yes. It’s like the five star reviews. They tend to be either 1 star or 5 star; never very much in between.

@OurTakeonFreedom – But I know that smiles have to be genuine to create happiness (newest research, so twisting the lips upwards isn’t going to do it). I suspect that kinda kills the causative factor for how can one smile genuinely
without being happy already. I am thus wondering whether people who make a point of saying theyre ridiculously happy are actually trying to compensate for something. That whole positive thinking cult.

@Jason – But suppose such a person then had several more cups in the following days. Would they still be amazing? Not really, yet they are frequently described as such. The devaluing of the language by using hyperbole to describe everything is what I am griping about. First the problem of communicating to others e.g. if someone describes an awesome run and then I find out that it was a 1.5 mile jog, I am unlikely to listen in the future—I already find myself consistently ignoring “awesome” things… like the term “sale” has become meaningless because everything is always on sale anyway. Second, if a morning jog is awesome, how is one personally going to relate to running an ultramarathon? This kinda instills the feeling of “if you think that’s impressive, you ain’t seen nothing yet” 🙂

@Chad – I agree. Overhyping could be seen as passive-aggressive behavior similar to, for example, increasing armaments during the cold war: “I’m not aiming at you, but I just built some more bombs.” Extroverts generally report themselves to be more happy than introverts. Introverts report themselves more content. Indeed, I usually expect someone who uses the A-words a lot to be an extrovert.

@HSpencer – There is a strong correlation between the phrases “Great post” and “I agree”. It is almost the default comment on some blogs: “Great post. I agree.”. This corroborates the idea that a writer’s job is simply to express in words what the reader is actually thinking and not so much what the reader is not thinking.

@Jacob, some of the observed hyperbole may be due to a limited ability to provide more than the simple regurgitation of a commonly heard phrase.

You have an advanced education, and I’ll guess that you didn’t feel as though it was very hard for you to achieve that level of education– for you, perhaps much of it seemed relatively easy. It seems likely that you’re in the top 1-2 percent or so with regard to vocabulary, language skills, comprehension, etc… You can’t expect the same of others. Remember that 1/2 of the population will be in the bottom 50% in those categories, right?

So perhaps they’re just not as able to converse in more specific terms. If the common media attempts to appeal to the middle 95% or so… you may not be in that demographic, and thus painfully subjected to an unending barrage of “awesome”s and “amazing”s.

Constant hyperbole is a particularly North American disease. Europeans, I find, tend to call things as they are, while Northern Europeans even downplay things (an epic fully-loaded bike ride up the Col du Galibier was described to me by the German who just accomplished it as “not so soft”). Canadians are the worst offenders, e.g., “OMG, that is like the most amazing pie in the history of the world!!!” Blech.

It’s gotten so bad that if you say that something is “nice,” people think you dislike it.

Awesome post. I agree.

Hmm . . .I have to say that some of this is cultural and, quite frankly, expected. I can speak this language as well.

As a teacher in the US, I never called a student’s performance awesome, of course, but let’s say the kid was so out of control in class that I would be grinding my teeth in annoyance. Here is what I say to make my life easier and get the results I want:

“Your child is full of energy, very social and has so much potential. . . he/she should work on the following behavior in order to become an even better student!”

I could think of other ways to phrase the issue, but it would only result in me getting attacked by the parent and the kid’s behavior would not change (at least in the US) . . . By the way, I’ve seen some French teachers severely offend American parents in French schools! In France this kind of making everything positive does not exist.

If I’m eating pie, for example, I probably think it’s “good” (shoot, it’s pie ok, what’s not to like?). If my in-laws are eating pie (a perfectly good one) they will be quite likely to say it’s “mediocre!”

In France, you can sometimes see the word “Mediocre on a report card . . .” Don’t try that at in the US unless you want a parent foaming at the mouth . . .

Chad–yep, that pretty much sums it up, at least in some areas. Hence, I’m no longer teaching. Maybe I’ll be able to find another career that doesn’t require me to ‘speak that language.’ But the social pressure to do so is tangible and real–and quite unhealthy as you mention. (poor kids!)

Hi Jacob,

I love this amazing post you have put together! It was awesome! lol.

In case it wasn’t clear I am using sarcasm above…

The word I use most often to describe something that I don’t have a word for is “interesting.”

My girlfriend asked me what interesting means since I use it all the time. I said it simply means something is thought provoking but I haven’t gathered an opinion about the subject yet to describe it as something else. Apparently she was satisfied with my explanation.

Cheers,
Jeremy

I have a friend that seems to exaggerate everything. for him 1 foot is equal to 10 feet, and everyone is his best friend. I don’t understand how he views the world. For a realist like myself, I get utterly annoyed.

I am really not trying to be a troll. I love your blog and I think you are very intelligent and have interesting view points. However, it is hard to read your post when there are multiple grammatical mistakes. One mistake is something everyone does, but if it is over and over, you must not know that you are doing it wrong. So if I were you, I would want to know that I was doing something incorrectly. Here is the deal quotes go on the outside of periods and commas and most of the time on the outside of question marks. Here is a link to the rules http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp. Instead of saying: In most cases I would describe my emotional state as “content”. In most cases I feel pleased with the situation. It is “okay”. The status is “green”. It should be written: In most cases I would describe my emotional state as “content.” In most cases I feel pleased with the situation. It is “okay.” The status is “green.”

Hmm, folks may think I’m guilty of this at work, but, I really am just happy to be at work-I’m one year closer to ERE (although they have no idea of that because I don’t broadcast it). So, I use the words ‘awesome’, ‘fantastic’, ‘wonderful’, etc, quite often in conversation/work communication.

Outside of work I’m pretty reserved. I don’t usually rate things, but when describing music (which I love), I’ll often say an album/artist is lacking, okay, good, damn good, great. This is mostly based on their understanding of music/lyrical prose, their connection to it, and their ability to share/relate that connection. Nothing else really goes into that ‘rating’ as it’s mostly subjective anyway.

I dunno, Spiderman is pretty “amazing” if you ask me.
I agree with one of the above comments, the whole world isn’t like this (yet). I remember being in Copenhagen and seeing a huge lit sign which read, “Carlsberg – One of the best beers in town”. I found that interesting and one of my friends said, “It’s because they can’t say they’re ‘the best’. Everyone would laugh at them.” There’s a Danish word commonly used for thinking and exaggerating you or something is better than it is. Can’t remember the word though.
…I can’t remember the last time I had cup of coffee which left me in awe. :/