Words that Ire

I find some words or phrases irritating - and sometimes I don't even know why.  In the recent past it was the phrase "reach out" - as in "reach out to Accounting and see if they have processed the payment".  Why use more words than necessary?  Isn't it more direct to say "Call Accounting....."?  I cringed every time someone said "reach out...."  Then came the word "chipolte"  I don't like it.  It doesn't sound right to me.  Is it a real word?  I believe some marketing "genius" just made it up one day and now it's everywhere.  It seems to be trending.

And that brings me to my current irritating word - "trending".  The irritation factor is magnified by the fact that the word itself is trending and the cause of the word - social media - is also trending.   It is all a big stupid fad.

Bangs are trending, Air Jordons are trending (or was that last decade?), skinny jeans are trending (last week?), the Kardashians are trending- fads fads fads.  I've never been impressed with keeping up with the Jones' - or the Kardashian's.   Fads come and go all the time - you might be cool now with those Michelle Obama bangs but next week you are gonna need a beehive or you are so uncool.  Spare me (a trending phrase from not long ago).

Sure - I like to be "in style" as much as possible on my very tight budget - but I'd rather buy something based on it's usefulness, it's quality or it's cost / feature ratio.  I don't buy what is trending.  But the word trending does mean something to marketers.  In fact they rely on what is currently trending to make the big sales. Trending equals dollars.

So now I've said the stupid word a lot in perfectly reasonable context.  Does it bother you?  It still bothers me.  Why?  Because it is the same as another perfectly good word that didn't need to be replaced.  That word is "popular".  Go back and read the last 2 paragraphs using the word popular instead of trending.  Same difference.  Apparently "popular" is no longer trending.