Web Monitor
14:53 UK time, Thursday, 14 January 2010
A celebration of the riches of the web.
Today in Web Monitor: A dislike of the word "like" and how to brag.
• against the word "like". He hasn't come over all negative; he just like wants to get rid of the word's use as filler. He thinks it will be necessary to take another step and bring back the use of "as". Mr Hitchens urges vigilance:
"It can, however, be pruned and rationed, and made the object of mockery for those who have surrendered to it altogether. The restoration of the word 'as', which isn't that hard a word to master, along with 'such as', would also be a help in varying the national lingo."
• The that it has found out how to brag without looking bad. The research by Nurit Tal-Or suggests that as long as you didn't appear to bring up a subject, you can get away with boasting about it:
"To pull off a successful boast, you need it to be appropriate to the conversation. If your friend, colleague, or date raises the topic, you can go ahead and pull a relevant boast in safety. Alternatively, if you're forced to turn the conversation onto the required topic then you must succeed in provoking a question from your conversation partner. If there's no question and you raised the topic then any boast you make will leave you looking like a big-head."
Links in full
PS: An earlier version of this post referred to a 1972 book predicting life in 2010. Watch this space for more on 2010: Living in the Future.
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