On YOLO
Yoda knows what’s going down in the 21st century
So, recently this acronym ‘yolo’ has come to my attention because one of my good friends at TSU uses it constantly. Constantly.
Me: Man I don’t know if I should get dessert, but that ice cream looks good…
Friend: Y.O.L.O.!
Me: It’s raining something awful outside. You really want to walk across campus for food right now?
Friend: Y.O.L.O.
Me: I have a paper due tomorrow, but I’ve never seen the Avengers…
Friend: Y.O.L.O.
Me: 
She’s honestly tried to cut back but sometimes it still comes out.
Now, I’m not saying the idea behind YOLO isn’t great—you only live once—it’s a great motto! Just like Carpe Diem/Seize the Day is a wonderful motto I really enjoy. But YOLO… really? It sounds like someone with a full mouth trying to say ‘yoyo’.
There’re several reasons I dislike the use of ‘yolo’ in any kind of conversation. Firstly, what kind of depressive, depraved and overall bad mojo friend was the inventor of YOLO hanging out with that he’d need to invent an acronym to encourage his friend to start living his life? And WHAT was his friend doing before ‘yolo’? Not living life? Or pretending to be a cat with 9 lives?
(photo cred: http://mashable.com/2012/09/06/photo-challenge-yolo/)
And why ‘yolo’? Why not something like ‘S.T.D.’, you know—seize the day? I mean I know it could be confused with another common acronym, but considering you’re the caliber of human who’d constantly say ‘yolo’ you’re probably headed towards it anyways. And now you can cover up your embarrassing condition by saying ‘what guys? It means ‘seize the day’. Gosh!’ So next time you come back from the doctor’s office and your friends are asking you what they said just say ‘He came back with a chart and told me ‘STD’, with a wink’. And yes, the wink is important.
And can we please just take a moment to appreciate all the people with tattoos of ‘YOLO’ etched into the fabric of their skins?
(http://hot937.cbslocal.com/2012/06/20/when-yolo-goes-too-far-a-best-of-yolo-pics/yolo-tattoo/)
(http://www.collegemagazine.com/editorial/2796/When-YOLO-Goes-Wrong)
Oh yes! Zac Efron has ‘yolo’ tattooed on his hand, so it must be a great idea! Yes because a 21 year old high school senior should be your decision-making end-all. Now, just to be clear I’m not hating on Zac Efron or on anybody who’s older and was ‘held back’ in school…I’m just trying to make a point that celebrities (particularly Hollywood celebrities) ARE NOT the people the youth should be taking cues from. I mean just read a little bit that comes out of their mouths:
“I’ve never really wanted to go to Japan. Simply because I don’t like eating fish. And I know that’s very popular out there in Africa.” –Britney Spears
But getting back to YOLO. The truth is there’s only 1 time it’s appropriate to use without lowering your or anyone else’s IQs, and that’s to make fun of someone else who has said ‘YOLO’ in the general area.
Look, the point is this: there really is no ‘cool’ or ‘great’ or ‘awesome’ time to use YOLO. It makes me think that:
(photo cred: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/25175110.jpg)
Also, why is ‘you only live once’ considered a rallying call? How is it encouraging you to take part in going out and partying or drinking or smoking and other shenaningans? Couldn’t it just as easily mean ‘take precious care of your life because, you know, you only live once.’ So don’t do reckless things because you’ve only got one shot at this life and if you decide to get scheisse faced and go for a drive than you’ll never be able to go out and do all those great things you were planning on doing…Maybe yolo is really just a cautionary tale trying to teach our young generation a lesson and we’ve all ignored the other side of the coin because our culture is already too obsessed with ‘living life to the fullest’ and ‘having it all’…
Or maybe it’s just a stupid f***ing acronym that needs to disappear from any and all forms of society.
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