I'm Like, Whatever . . .

Hopefully none of you have read The Sunday Times yet.

Because I'm sharing bits out of an article there that had me grinning.

So here we go:

"I am soooooo not liking the way South Africans are, like, sounding like Paris Hilton.

Cathy (20), says: "I'd like to, like, have like, better grades. But when I like, talk in the like, like, classroom, I like say a lot of like, things that my like, teacher and like, classmates don't find convincing . . ."

Paul's girlfriend ditched him when he said: "I, like, love you."

The word pops up in a different guise: "and I'm like . . . "

It means the same as "I said. . ."

So the teenager, brain addled by too much Sponge Bob Squarepants in the formative years, will say:

"So I'm like, 'Well, I'm not feeling that right now.'"

"And he's like, 'But you know I'm like, not ready . . '"

But nothing annoys quite like "whatever."

For full effect, the phrase should be uttered with total indifference, a toss of the head and a slight upward roll of the eyes.

Ask any teenager to help you and you get: "I'm like, you know, whatever. ." which, quite brilliantly, manages to indicate apathy, ignorance and disrespect in one simple sentence.

Its almost poetic;

think of it as attitude haiku."

I have two things to say to the writer, Kate Sidley:

1. I sooooo agree (but do, like, fall into the trap myself sometimes)

2. Obviously, you have not been in the company of 6 and 7 year olds much lately.

They are also, like, sooooo into it.

Whatever.