Linguists fret about the effects that social media has on modern languages. They see standard rules of writing being broken constantly with neologisms, emoticons and acronyms cropping up and replacing older words that are perfectly capable of serving us to express our thoughts and feelings. However, the threat to communication comes from other sources.

We are living in a world where hype permeates the language of business, politics, and entertainment. We seem no longer able to communicate exciting concepts without resorting to hyperbole and hype, only to see our bombastic utterances deflated by reality. The business world seems to be populated with evangelists who coin meaningless but colourful expressions like ‘greenfield opportunities’, ‘blue-skies thinking’, ‘beacons of excellence’, ‘refreshing the brand’, ‘the challenge of change’ and ‘placing innovation at the forefront of our strategy’.

Leaders of industry, scientists, politicians and those in public office often engage professional writers in writing their speeches, press releases and online communication.

They want to translate their enthusiasm for a particular issue into a colourful script that has more to do with spin then with reality. Gary Schwitzer, the publisher of a watchdog site that reviews health news, says: “Lost in all this (media hype) is the consumer, the reader, the patient at the end of this food chain who doesn’t know how the sausage is made, and if he or she could see it would see what an ugly mess it is.”

The area where I believe that hype is most detached from reality is in the world of politics. No one can deny that technological developments in the last three decades have brought about massive improvements in people’s lives. Medicine, communication, travel and e-commerce have changed the way we keep ourselves healthy, travel and procure the things we need or want.

The concept that technology could solve humanity’s problems as many politicians try to imply is just out of touch with reality

However, the concept that technology could solve humanity’s problems as many politicians try to imply is just out of touch with reality. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has admitted that Silicon Valley was naive to believe it could solve humanity’s problems. He added that technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. “I think we are both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment, over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems too.”

The problem with the utopic language of business and politics is that it is almost impossible to translate into anything meaningful. Have you ever attended a business seminar or a political meeting where most of the audience seemed fired up with enthusiasm by the speeches of evangelical speakers who shriek about Heaven and Hell and redemption, but you share none of their beliefs? Today’s evangelists wonder why there is a minority of agnostics who do not share their pseudo visionary concepts.

Hype originated in the language of corporate puffery and has now entered the language of politics. The world is split into two separate communities: the lovers of hype and spin will communicate with each other in an increasingly hysterical manner about ‘future proofing the economy’, and the ‘the enhancement of bigness in the fuel of endeavour’. They neither know what these phrases mean nor do they trouble themselves to find out. The rest of us will be cast to the sidelines. We will not partake of the ‘unfurling of opportunities’ because we will not understand what they are.

There comes a time in most people’s lives where they have to accept that they are no longer the person they thought they were. Things they may have liked about themselves no longer hold. They try to reinvent themselves to remain relevant. They are suckers for reality programmes that glamorise the cult of living like celebrities. Normality is alien to them as they strive to get noticed.

Armando Iannucci, author of The Audacity of Hype, is one of Britain’s most renowned satirists. He gives his views on reality shows – views that are shared by many. “Reality shows are stinking, manipulative psycho-sewers populated by emotionally dwarfs and made by scum-smeared zombies with the brain power of a blood orange and the imagination of a bin.”

I would not have described these popular shows or even some third rate talk shows with the strong language used by Ianucci. However, I must admit that I find the excitement promoted by the masters of hype that populate the business, political and entertainment worlds as an insult to the multitude of people who prefer to keep in touch with reality.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com

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