Stop Saying “It’s Awesome”

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There’s an epidemic of sorts.

No, it’s not a virus that’s spreading the globe,
or some bad action that everyone’s started doing.

Instead, it’s the epidemic of the word “Awesome.”

Everywhere I go,
everything I read,
every conversation I participate in,

something’s always ‘Awesome.”

Or at least they say it is.

So the result is an overused word with unappreciated meaning.

Stop using the word “awesome” for things that would never even make anyone look twice, much less stop in awe.

(Of course, I don’t really care if you say the word “Awesome” :-), just something I’ve noticed)

Thoughts? What words do you know of that have been overused?

42 responses to “Stop Saying “It’s Awesome””

joann

January 9

SWAG… it’s overuse makes me cringe on the inside!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  Good one!
  
  Reply
bill (cycleguy)

January 9

Your blog is Awe…..Aw I ain’t allowed to say it! :) I like your thought here Jonathan. Overused words can become meaningless. There are some words though i wish would go by the way of the dodo bird: S**k, C**p, Sc**w, and some other (what I consider tasteless) words that have “shady” connotations in other venues. Sorry to rant. I just think we need to take stock of what we do say.

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  I can understand that as well, Bill. I think we do have to be careful. Not sure where the line is there… maybe ‘anything not in faith’? Thanks for your opinion!
  
  Reply
Thomas Mason

January 9

The word “awesome” is an overused word these days. I think people say it because they can’t think of another word to use. Most times things aren’t really that awesome.

Jonathan, I think you should “invent” a new word. Who knows…maybe it will catch on and then people can say that you are “awesome” because you came up with it!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  How about bringing back, “Rad”? Nah, maybe not… :)
  
  Reply
Kathy Fannon

January 9

About 20 years ago one of our pastors preached on the word “awesome” and how we overuse it. “Wow, that’s an awesome dog you’ve got there!”

But really the only thing that’s awesome is God. Everything else…not so much.

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1. Kathy Fannon
  
  January 9
  
  Actually I think the point of the sermon was the awesomeness of God.
  
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2. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  Agreed!
  
  Reply
3. tony
  
  July 7
  
  How about a spiral galaxy or DNA or the Hadron Collider or a nuclear explosion? Are they “not so much”?
  
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Eileen

January 9

I’m still stuck on the word cool. But that’s just my age. We could go back to the word groovy. I think it would be cool if tweets started encouraging me to read this groovy post over here. ;)

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  You gotta read if it’s “groovy”! :)
  
  Reply
  1. bill (cycleguy)
    
    January 9
    
    I vote for groovy also. Some of the 60s songs I listen to from time to time have that in it and it sounds so…different! Groovy has my vote!! :)
    
    Reply
Debbie Mast

January 9

JP, are you talking about me????????? You’re right, ya know…we find a word and it becomes a habit for whatever we find amazing, interesting,mindblowing, or whatever. With all the words in the English language, you’d think we could do better. Lazy, are we??? Thanks for the reminder that we can and should watch our words!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  haha… No, wasn’t thinking about you, but you’re right! :) I really can’t say much, I use “amazing” just as much!
  
  Reply
Sandy Bowers

January 9

Really? Seriously? Those two words are everywhere now… movies, night time dramas, etc. I always say “I have the most awesome clients”, but Kathy’s right. God is the only AWESOME one! But, if I were to say “You’re awesome Jonathan!”… It really just means you’re living like Christ! So that’s the ultimate compliment, right?! Other words? I like are “cool” and “neato… don’t like “that’s sick” or “sweeeeet”. Fun post. Thanks for sharing! But I’ll still say Awesome from time to time. Just a heads-up in case you see it in an email. :-)

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  haha… I’ll forgive you ahead of time! :)
  
  Reply
2. LKB
  
  July 15
  
  Neato? No – leave that one in the 70’s with Archie and Betty.
  
  Reply
Sandy Sandmeyer

January 9

I try to use the word “fabulous” more. I like it and it doesn’t get used enough. Have a fabulous day! I used awesome a lot in the 80’s going through my Valley Girl phase. It was like, awesome, you know, totally!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  haha… I can so see you as a valley girl! :) Funny stuff Sandy. Thanks as always!
  
  Reply
April

January 9

There is one word that is becoming used more and more frequently and I cringe when I hear it..however, I do not choose to type or say this word…but you know it is being said a lot on television when you hear the beep!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  O yeah. I’m tracking with you. Not good!
  
  Reply
TMZ

January 9

This has always been a pet peeve of mine. Think it stems from my love for the song “Awesome God” and feeling weird calling anything else “awesome.” Glad I’m not the only one!

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  ha. Havent’ thought about that. Thanks for stopping by!
  
  Reply
Dave Hearn

January 9

This is a pet peeve of mine. I used to say it all the time and had to correct myself. It’s a very American thing to say…

What do you say instead?

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  I usually say ‘amazing.’ The only problem is I really overuse that one too. :) Appreciate you stopping by and adding to the conversation. What do you use now instead?
  
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Jason Vana

January 9

I’m actually really bad at using the word awesome. For a long time, it was actually the way I signified I was done with a conversation. I would just be like “well…awesome” and then said goodbye. I’m getting better, but for a long while it was really, really bad.

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  Ha. Yeah, seen that one a lot too. Guess its better than “shut up, I’m done.” :-)
  
  Reply
evie

January 9

I’ve probably been one of the people at fault for using it. heh

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  HAha. It’s ok, we forgive you!
  
  Reply
Anita

January 9

I no longer use the word awesome except for in reference to things God does. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but I’ll risk it. I don’t like the word “addicting “; it really irritates me.

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 9
  
  Haha. That one kinda gets overused too… At least by me. :)
  
  Reply
nantuckettiechic

January 12

The word ‘awesome’ has become meaningless in my house. Too many teenagers. Doesn’t bother me–I read a little George MacDonald and renew my vocabulary. The expression that my middle school Sunday Schoolers are currently overusing is ‘supercute’ Cringe every time.

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Astrid in Providence

January 12

Thank you, Mr. Pearson, for putting into words (and action) what I’ve been thinking and feeling for months and months!! Often, humans pick up behaviors or forms of speech from each other. It’s part of a bonding/connection/mirroring experience that is unconscious and an important part of relationship building. BUT, when ‘creative’ writers (for TV shows, commercials and movies) or TV hosts use it OVER and OVER and OVER again, it’s pure laziness, wouldn’t you agree?
I’ve been appalled at how even the ‘best’ TV shows like Modern Family, Parks & Rec and too many others to mention, have characters using the word ‘awesome’ SEVERAL times in a 2 minute dialogue! Yes, out of frustration, I will actually count how many times I’ll hear it in one segment or episode! Even the best selling author & honored comedy writer Tina Fey falls prey to it. I’ve watched 30 Rock forever, and I’ve been SO dissapointed that this media “dear” has gotten so lazy. Where’s the creativity? Where’s the ‘fresh voice’??
I am SO done with hearing this word! If there were a drinking game where we’d have to take a shot every time we heard that word on our favorite TV shows or commercials, we’d be suffering from city-wide alcohol poisoning of ALL ages!
There are SO many words in the English language that more succinctly describe feelings or conditions than THE MOST OVERUSED, MISUSED WORD IN AMERICA…Don’t even get me started!….

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ThatGuyKC

January 14

Awesome post. (Haha! sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

I’m guilty of abusing the word “awesome” on a regular basis. This post has actually caused me to hesistate a few times and use a different word entirely, so thanks for expanding my vocabulary.

Awesome job. (last time I swear)

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1. Jonathan Pearson
  
  January 14
  
  Haha. That’s it! No more! :-)
  
  Reply
brown bird

January 16

i agree that awesome is overused, but i would rather hear awesome said 112 times than hear amazing once. amazing is far more overused and i absolutely despise it. i also think it sounds more vapid and thoughtless than awesome. it’s worst when amazing is used by young girls. that’s the kind of thing that makes my toes curl and my teeth itch.
“omigawd, i saw the twilight movie with jessica and it was amazing! jacob is, like, so hawt with his amazing abs! so then we went to starbucks and i got this amazing muffin. omigawd. then we saw kyle and brittany. you know they’re going out? omigawd, they look amaaaaazing together! so we asked if they’d come to hollister with us cuz i wanted to get this amaazing hoodie i saw. but kyle was taking them to a ke$ha concert. he’s suuuch and ammaaaaazing boyfriend!” how many times do you hear this kind of thing? seriously, amazing and awesome have to stop.

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1. ellagamberi
  
  April 16
  
  I used to cringe at this kind of valley girl talk but I thought it was only on TV. Then one day I actually heard two girls on a train talking like this. Its hilarious. My daughter can copy this really well and she gives us a good laugh. I never stopped to think about this, but you are right ‘awesome’ is one of their stock words. But then it seems they are a very definite sub-strata of society and its limited to one gender and a particular age group. The sort who hang out at the mall.
  
  The ‘awesome’ disease however is not limited to age or gender. I live in New Zealand and have lived in Europe and Australia and I would have to say that Kiwis are the world’s worst offenders of ‘awesome’. In a country with a smaller population than Denmark on a land mass the size of the UK, things spread like wildfire, so I suppose its no surprise that the whole country talks like this. It just bothers me when pastors do it because we are supposed to be separate from the world not exactly like it.
  
  Reply
Paul Worcester

May 11

Awesome post!!

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Nance

May 29

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It is ABSOLUTELY nauseating how overused are both The A Words these days.

I am SO over it that I feared I might need CPR Resuscitation, but it turned out to be only PMS Syndrome.

Thank God it wasn’t an STD Disease!

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Bob

October 12

List of proposed removals from lexicon:
Be Well!
Perfect!
Excellent!
‘Late (for good-bye)
F***’n (7 year olds include in their sentences with emphasis)
‘ya know what I’m saying?
…….the worst of all times – conversating with you.

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MCMJ

April 9

I found this on a Google search for “how to stop saying awesome so much.” It’s to the point where it just spews out of my mouth and I cringe. I would’ve liked to see some suggestions in addition to your critique.

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JONATHAN | PEARSON

Stop Saying “It’s Awesome”

42 responses to “Stop Saying “It’s Awesome””

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