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YOLO? Definately a NO GO!




If you type "what does" in Google, before you’ve had chance to finish the sentence the first thing the automatic search will give you is "what does YOLO mean?" YOLO is one of those words that, if like me, will make you cringe every time you hear it. It actually stands for "You Only Live Once" and was popularised by celebs like Zac Efron and Drake. People who use it attribute it to everything from stealing a car to going to the shop for a pint of milk in your slippers!

"About to go to the pub on a work night, YOLO" or "Got a hole in my sock, YOLO" are both acceptable uses of the annoying acronym. It is ultimately what "Fuck It" used to stand for. It’s been picked up by teeny boppers and wannabe rappers everywhere and seems to be used mainly on the internet, as a way of showing how reckless an individual is; without them actually being reckless at all.

In 2011 teenage heartthrob Zac Efron had tattooed YOLO on his hand and Drake posted a picture of himself looking out of a window across Las Vegas with the caption: "You only live once… YOLO".

And now it seems everybody is at it and is now one of those "popular terms" that completely lose their meaning after being used by so many people at once. There’s nothing wrong with slang, but this isn’t slang, it’s just stupid. No one actually lives twice, not even James Bond – the saying is redundant. The problem a lot of people have with "YOLO" is the way it’s used so flippantly, like the person who’s saying it is some kind of maverick, and by using an abbreviation that has been used a million times previously, we should all really believe that this person is by large some sort of rebel.

At the end of the day, YOLO is just an annoying abbreviation that can be ignored quite easily, but when it’s gone another one probably more embarrassing will take its place. Eventually we’ll be surrounded by pointless acronyms, made popular by egotistical rap stars and Twitter trends. Despite the fight against YOLO-ists, I guess it’s still only a matter of time before River Island print a t-shirt with the word scrawled across it. Oh wait...

It looks as if the only acceptable way of expressing the word YOLO if you aren't a 14-year-old chav, is if you were to say: "YOLO is quite frankly, very stupid," and even then I would be inclined to slap you just a little. That is unless you're Zac Efron, because then you are too beautiful for it to even matter what you have tattooed on that picture perfect body of yours!