..dude! Check it out!

The overheard portion of a conversation, between a pair of 20-something humans of opposite sexes, was prefaced with, "Do you even know how to get there?" from the young man, who was pointing apparently to a mutually-understood location in the distance, as he was literally pointing over my head and into a supporting wall decorated with some unidentifiable modern 'art:' a knobby stick painted black, zip-tied to the wall, accompanied by a bent brown frond and some rusted metal tool. The girl, looking up into the boy's rather impressive height, shakes her head in response to his question. Excited by this opportunity to further engage the young miss, the boy adorns a goofy grin, snort of a chuckle and exclaims, "Check it out!" before entering into a rather non-eventful series of driving directions.

I've noticed this new trend. Young people (younger than myself, let us say early 20s) are preempting listener boredom and inevitable abandonment of the conversation with the bouncy statement, "Check it out!" I cannot help but wonder if we, as a capitalist society based on consumerism, are so inundated with marketing that we feel compelled to "sell" not only ourselves, but the conversation (or bit of dialogue) we're about to share. Isn't this an interesting bit of social evolution? We can hardly argue that we do this... adding little bits of curiosity and amusement, attractive pictures, alluring outfits, hairstyles, expressions... not unlike boasting our bright plumage proudly as indication of our worthiness for attention. Curious if S would call it a "meme".... Also wondering if it is the influence of a largely online culture, where shocking and/or sexy pictures and graphics constantly compete for our instantly distracted attention.

What is even more interesting, in my opinion, is how specifically this statement is being used. One would expect, given the exclamation, that the listener is about to receive some exciting and relevant piece of information, something worth staying tuned for, something that could change the course of her life! In the context of this conversation, one might expect he's going to announce that the club (or coffee shop, mall, or sex dungeon he was leading her toward) is in some very unlikely and thrilling location, perhaps suspended about the city on a nimbus plane, or on the bed of Town Lake, admittance only via a rapidly-descending tunnel into the depths by way of an old, rickety rail cart. But, no. Despite the "Check it out!" intro, he launched into a stale google-maps Directions transcript.

Given my brief exposure to him, I'll go so far as to presume that he, either due to his self-consciousness and excitement over ensnaring the young girl's attention up to that moment, or due to a simple lack of intellect... perhaps both... is misusing the exclamation entirely. I'm more inclined to presume that it has become yet another essentially meaningless collection of sounds, thrown into conversation for minimal effect and more to create the illusion of the speaker's popularity and 'hip'-ness (coolness? what are the kids saying these days?...) as opposed to any deliberate marketing of one's verbal product. Or, maybe, just for a moment, the poor lad convinced himself, and the lucky lady, that he actually had something thrilling to tell her, thus enabling him a few extra moments in her presence, and the hopeful illusion that she wanted to continue the conversation, which was contrived from the onset.