“It’s all good.” “You’re perfect.”
The Opinion columnist Pamela Paul has grown to dislike these two upbeat expressions.
Do you hear them often in your everyday life? Do they bother you?
Are there any other common phrases you hear from your peers or parents or online that have started to annoy you? Why do you dislike them?
In the Opinion essay “It’s All Good, and You’re Perfect,” Ms. Paul writes about what she sees as “mindless optimism” in some of today’s common language. She begins:
Recently I’ve been told that I’m perfect, something I’m perfectly aware I’ve never been nor ever will be.
This generous assessment has come from strangers when I apologize for bumping into them and from the exceedingly cheerful salespeople at the store where my daughter shops for clothes. “No, you’re perfect!” they’ll insist when I explain the need to rest my Gen X weariness on the fitting room floor where a modest “No problem” would have sufficed.
The urge toward pronounced perfection is annoyingly catchy. Almost against my will, I now respond to emails with a knee-jerk “Perfect!” where I once would have said something more in line with the nevermind sensibility of my generation. “Sounds good,” for example, or “OK.”
Even our artificial intelligence exhorts us to greater heights of enthusiasm. To an email in which an acquaintance notes pleasantly, “It was nice seeing you last night,” Gmail suggests a more boisterous reply: “It was great to see you too!” or “So fun!” Our chatbots likewise communicate with endless effervescence, just as we have taught them to do(!).
When not being perfect, we are decidedly good. Should I so much as display a downbeat facial expression when fumbling a social nicety, the response is nothing short of impassioned: “No, you’re good!”
Being good is for everyone. We are all good now that “You’re all good” has replaced both the Commonwealth “No worries” and the American standard “That’s OK.” And it’s not always personal. Frequently, declarations of goodness come in the form of an expansive statement of general excellence: “It’s all good.”
But is it all good, really?
Students, read the entire essay and then tell us:
Are there popular phrases that people use today that annoy you? Tell us about one and why it bothers you.
What is your reaction to Ms. Paul’s essay? Do you agree with her that expressions like “It’s all good” and “You’re perfect” are too enthusiastic, and maybe even dishonest? Or do you find nothing wrong with this sort of positive language?
Ms. Paul suggests that these overly optimistic phrases may be a reaction to the negativity of social media, or even a way to convey emojis in the real world. To what extent do you think social media and the internet influence how you and your peers speak? Can you give an example?
Ms. Paul recalls the days in her life when “Sounds good” and “That’s OK” were acceptable responses. How do those phrases sound to you? What differences have you observed between the way your generation and those older or younger than you use language?
Are there expressions you and your peers use that you actually like? What are they, and why do you like them?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
