Like Totally Annoying

It's official: If you want to annoy approximately 45% of the population, just throw "whatever" around more often. According to a recent Marist college poll, this is the word which wins the prize for annoying Americans the most. With so many overused and annoying phrases to choose from, how did "whatever" win out (at least over the top five presented in this poll)? Maybe it was just the tone the pollster used or whatever.

"Whatever" is one of the closest idiomatic equivalents to rolling the eyes, telling the world (well, not like the whole world, maybe just America) that we really couldn't care less. Not just that we couldn't care less about the conversation we throw the word into, but that we do not care enough to better express ourselves: either because we lack the ability or the initiative for the necessary effort.

Granted we all have our diction pet peeves, but at the end of the day, there is not much we can do other than use these cliches a bit less ourselves, you know.