Overused

When I lived in NY and read NY Magazine religiously, one of my favorite sections of each issue was “overheard.”  You know, random things you hear, completely out of context, that are funny. Now I read the Overheard in New York blog, where I pulled some of these:

“Just because she has a tattoo doesn’t mean she’s an alcoholic!”

“Hey, what month is eleven?”

“I don’t need more drinks to choose from. I’m not that interested in beverages. I like my Diet Coke, I like my vodka, and that’s all I need.”

“Sex with Steven is more boring than church.”

“This is the B train. B like in Bitch.”

For me, the opposite of Overheard is “Overused.” Random words or phrases that become too popular. They start off innocently enough. You only hear or read them occasionally.  Then some kind of social inertia kicks in, and these words seem to be everywhere: spoken in meetings, seen on web pages, blog posts, print ads, even radio spots. Might I dare say they’ve reach a tipping point?  (Hmmm. Tipping Point. Might have to put that on the list, too…)

It’s around this point that I just stop paying attention.

Here are few of my personal “favorite” words and phrases that are overused, approaching overused status or just plain annoying:

• Ecosystem
• Outside my comfort zone
• Join the conversation (Come on. Even Anderson Cooper is using this now.)
• Reach out
• Meet up
• We’re committed to…(insert any company initiative here)
• Paradigm shift
• Across the pond
• Let’s discuss that offline
• Synergy and/or synergistic
• Workflow

What words or phrases drive you nuts?