“Basic.” It is a common used word between people these days. People do not use this word as a meaning of “of, relating to, or forming the base or essence(Merriam-Webster)” People often use this word to describe others in the meaning of “only interested in things mainstream, popular, and trending(Urban Dictionary)” Don’t get me wrong. I am not here to criticize people who use the word because I also use it. However, I am here to discuss. Since when were so “original”? How and why is it bad to only like the mainstream? or the popular?
My school, Madison Country Day School, was pre-k through 12; 400 kids in total, 35 students, a Class of 2018. We grew up together, celebrated holidays and birthdays together, had a really good time; one day, I heard the word “basic,” people saying why is she or he acting so basic? I did not understand what they meant, instead I thought it was a positive thing since the word basic’s literal meaning is forming the base or essence.
However, unlike my thought, it refers a person who tries to be someone else from Instagram or acts like a “cool” kid. Eventually, I understood the meaning of the word after watching the movie Mean Girls again and also found people who act like one. In my school, it was too small to be a cool kid, and honestly, we disliked people as a class who thought they could be a cool kid thinking they are better than the others.
No one can be that original; people have been around too long to be original from the others. I am not trying to convince you have to discover your originality as a person or something because I have not yet figured out a single thing either. However, I wanted to discuss in this post about this word with you because it is a new word describe others not using the literal meaning started from the social media. As the RCL blog post’s website discusses how the Internet is invading people’s lives. There are new words people created on the Internet such as “shady” or a “snake.” If social media, for example Instagram, was not around, where some people post to get more likes or followers or to share their amazing daily lives, would these word have created in the first place? Would a word like “basic” have been around if social media or the Internet was not controlling our lives?
