Meaningless Hyperbole

It seems like everything is exaggerated today. When someone is sad, he says he is "depressed." When another person goofs off, she's called "insane." "Epic" is a popular adjective for anything remotely funny or interesting.

In actuality, "bipolar" does not mean someone who is in a good mood one day and a bad mood another; it is a very real psychological disorder. Most teenagers who use the word "depressed" fail to remember that depression refers to a persistent, unreasonable low mood, and not merely being sad for a reason.

Almost everyone I know exaggerates when they tell stories: "And then my mom yelled at me for an hour" "My friend gave me, like, a 5 dollar Ross card for my birthday" "Everyone on the street was laughing because I screamed and jumped a foot in the air"

The problem with hyperbole is that when it is overused, it becomes meaningless. I can't just say something is funny. If I want to convey its humor I have to say it is the "funniest thing in the world!" Then what do I say when something actually is the funniest thing in the world? It's like "lol." Now, if you actually laugh aloud, you have to type "alol." When meaningless hyperbole is tossed around, there is no way to convey shades of meaning.

I've been trying to avoid hyperbole. I've never been one to exaggerate stories--if something is funny enough for me to tell other people than I tell it the way it happened. If it needs to be exaggerated a lot to be funny, then it just isn't worth telling. What I've been working on is not exaggerating when describing things. So please, don't be offended if I say that something you do is just "pretty cool" and not "the most awesome thing I have EVER seen in my ENTIRE LIFE!"