Just a Gripe

Gripe 'O the Day: People who do not think about the words they say/write. This is one of my permanent pet peeves, and I bumped into it today. I was reading a classified ad, and the person posting the ad said, literally "A cool new website pacifically made for dog and puppy owners!" Pacifically? As in related to or resembling the Pacific ocean? I can only assume she means specifically but there is no way to be sure. Then again, the site could have been made by the Pacific ocean itself, in which case her statement is completely correct, but somehow I question the likelihood of that scenario.

I am not suggesting that everyone who speaks English be an expert at the language. I just want people to start thinking before they talk/write. If you say something, make sure it makes sense! For instance, the statement "I could care less" said in the context of 'I don't care' DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!! If you do not care, then you could NOT care less. Saying "I could care less" implies that you do, in fact, care. This is a basic logical mistake that countless hordes of people make all the time. Why? Because they do not think about what they are saying.

Another one of these that bugs me is when people use the phrase 'never the less' in the wrong context, like this: 'John wanted coffee. Never the less, he got some on his way to work.' Incorrect. Nevertheless is used correctly only when indicating overcoming or disregarding resistance, such as 'John wanted coffee, but there was a dragon in the coffee shop. Nevertheless, John walked in to get his coffee anyway, and was roasted like a Luau Pig.' See the difference?

One that I run into frequently is the misuse of 'in spite of.' The definition of spite is action done specifically to harm or annoy/inconvenience another person. The meaning has changed to also mean against the wishes of another person. However, saying something like 'In spite of the weather, we had a picknic anyway' does not make sense to me. Really? The weather? We are spiting the weather, which has no will, no self, no real identity? Is that even possible? Doesn't compute in my mind.

There are tons of these mistakes, and I could go on forever about them. It is when I come across one like 'pacifically' that I fear our educational system is creating testers aplenty, but not so many thinkers. In my field we call it metacognition. The ability to think about your own thoughts and actions in a somewhat objective way. It is a sign of maturity and intelligence. There was once a time when our ability to self-edit was highly esteemed. It seems that esteem is falling away. More pacifically, people just don't seem to care about being logical when they speak. And why should we be, when we can text things like 'c u l8r' or 'myob, lol' and get a point across?