Exaggeration: Causes

Exaggeration is a big part of society, from Presidential Candidates, to parents, to managers, to people on the street, you hear it almost every day. With the way todays society is going, it is no wonder that the use, and overuse, of exaggeration is on the rise. The group that most actively uses exaggeration is my generation, the teenagers/high schoolers of today, or as I call them, the "Exaggeneration". You can't go one hour without hearing at least one exaggerated statement; it has become almost like second nature for our society. If this was 80 years ago and someone said "Oh my God, I'm going to go home and sleep for like a million hours", the closest person would rush the exaggerator to the nearest hospital. Today, if one heard that statement, the reaction would be more along the lines of "Aww I wish I could but I have around 3000 tons of homework to do". What exactly causes this phenomenon? Did we just slip into it? Or do certain aspects of our life bring it about? One primary cause that reveals itself right away is the simple fact that life sucks. Who wants to focus on reality? Almost no one, which is why we have reality shows, teenage soap operas (be still my beating heart!), sit-coms, and everything else in between. Who wants to talk about the "X" amount of soldiers in Iraq that died over the weekend when you can talk about how it's "-100 degrees out"? Almost no one. Exaggeration is a way for the common man to invent their own reality, and forget the harsh realness that is real life.

Another cause of the increase in use of exaggeration is boredom. We are all, at some point during the day, bored with our lives. Why have a conversation like: "Yeah, I went home after school, and then ate a moderately sized dinner with my completely tolerable family then worked on my decent amount of homework before I took a quite soothing shower and went to bed" When you can have a conversation like: "Yeah, I sped home from school going like 50 miles per hour because I was so starving, and my mom made like the hugest meal ever, I mean, I was so hungry I could have eaten a third world country. My family was so incredibly annoying during dinner I could have punched them all in the face. It was, like, such a relief to get out of there, but then I had to do my huge amount of homework, I mean, it took me around 5 hours probably, or at least seemed like it! Once I finally finished my homework I took the most soothing shower ever, I mean, I melted it was so good. When I finally got into bed it was just like heaven, I mean I passed out like I was just knocked in the head with a hammer." Now see, isn't number two much better than number one? We all are looking for a way to spice up our lives, and not only does exaggeration do that, it also is a great way to bring up small talk. How would one be able to respond to conversation number one other than with "That sounds nice"? Or some other variation of that statement. With conversation number two, though, there are multiple questions that can be asked, like "What'd you have for dinner?" or "What did you have for homework?" There are tons of possibilities and those are just two of them.

The final feasible cause of exaggeration would be if it were used to express pain. There are people in the world who believe that no one can suffer more than them. An example of one use of this type of language would be if someone were to say "Oh man my back kills", the person using exaggeration would follow up with "Dude, not nearly as much as my shoulder, I banged up my shoulder so much more badly than you did to your back." These kinds of people should usually be ignored though because they also tend to be compulsive liars, who will blatantly say anything, and when you challenge them they get aggressive so you can't discover the fact that they are lying.