This evening at the laundromat I had just started a couple of wash cycles and I heard a Univision anchor speaking on the teevee set. In the middle of her report she said the words "fear of missing out." Those exact words.
I don't really have anything to say about FOMO in itself. It basically seems to be a standard youthful angst that's been extended via technology. But as an English speaker it's interesting to hear English in non-Anglophone contexts. French speakers are of course used to hearing their words and phrases turn up on the lips of others. And Germans must know their language has the reputation of being exacting and somewhat terrifying. I'm curious about the connotations the English language has for people who don't primarily speak it.
2 comments:
For hundreds of years French was the language of diplomacy, the speech common to most Europeans. That changed sometime between the two world wars with English taking over first place. Since English is a mixture of Latin, French, and German among others it's more likely to evolve quickly - particularly as it's also the language of technology. Jer said English is like pidgin European.
This morning I read an entertaining Unherd article about how the English language has been devolving in Britain to such an extent that even those of us who've spoken (and read) it all our lives much has become foreign to us.
"Pidgin European" is a pretty good phrase, and an apt one. French was the official language of the government and the nobility for about 300 years after William the Conqueror. English eventually made its way back into the court, of course, but it wasn't the same as before. That was the start of the spelling/pronunciation weirdness we've had ever since.
I missed that article when it first ran, but it's actually quite good. It's true that always having to use the most portentous word has the effect of degrading the concept behind it. "Non-existential crises are as rare as Trotskyist taxi drivers." Indeed.
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