Change

“The Rise of ‘Awesome’” by Robert Lane Greene

Central Argument: “Over a period of time the meanings of words change because it is used too frequently, like “awesome” for example.

In his article “The Rise of ‘Awesome’’ Robert Lane Greene says that the meaning of words changes over time because it is used too much. Although this is true, I think that everything including words also change over a period of time because of an excess of something. I agree with Greene because humans, Morals, and fashion are existing evidence of his theory. It is always because of an excess of something which causes change.

Human evolution is a great example of what Greene was saying in his article. Decades ago human structure was like a monkey’s structure, but over time this changed and humans started having a more straight back. However, due to too much sitting and working, watching television, and using laptops, our backs are becoming more bent. This is going back to what it was. All this luxury items are being used too much, therefore it is changing our postures. Similarly, like Greene said, the meaning of the word “awesome” changed over time because it was used to frequently.

During the Renaissance period in Europe, women being raped was allowed and accepted by the public. However over time this changed, because a lot of diseases were spreading due to this.  This again shows that change happened because of an excess of problems that were created. Another example from European history is that having an open attitude of making money was not accepted. It wasn’t morally right for a person to openly claim that he is doing something to make money. This too changed over time because slowly people realized that their attitude towards making money was not making them rich. Now it is okay for people to say that they are doing something to make money. People even brag about the salaries. Change in morals shows that over time people’s judgment about certain things changes because of events that occurred.

Another big example of change overtime is fashion. The only time I see Bell-Bottomed jeans now is in pictures. It is highly unlikely that you will see anyone wearing Bell-Bottomed jeans now. In the past men wore really tight pants. This changed over time to wearing really baggy jeans. However now you will again notice that because of baggy jeans being so common the latest trend for boys is skinny jeans. When something becomes too common, people change their ways. Korean boys in my school wear skinny jeans. Many other boys in my school were pink. Pink was considered a girly color, however, as time passed by this mindset changed. It is okay for boys to wear pink now. It is actually a fashion trend now.

Change happens because of many different reasons. Greene said that change in the meaning of words happened because certain words were becoming too common, therefore they were used in a different context with a tweaked meaning. However, change doesn’t only happen in meaning of words, because as time passes by everything around us changes, like dressing style, morals and values, and the physical features of our body. Change is unstoppable because everything becomes common over time.