The Evolution of YOLO
Boo-Ya! Who’s your daddy? Totally wicked! Gnarly! Chillax, bro! — We 90’s kids, ruled the schools with these phrases and weren’t afraid to tell each other to “take a chill pill” or “you da bomb!” When “yo mama” jokes and raisin’ the roof were all the rage, the 90’s and 2000’s had some pretty lame slang…PSYCHE!
But how do these phrases go out of style and new ones take their place? As long as you haven’t been living under a rock, you’d know that YOLO is the slang term of choice with today’s youth, standing for You Only Live Once. The phrase is derived from the popular Drake song, “The Motto.” And YOLO doesn’t stand alone, it seems that other phrases such as, ratchet, cray, epic fail, swag, deuces, and “like a boss” have all worked their way into the vocabulary of Bloomsburg University students. And don’t forget about the online abbreviations; our “brb”’s (be right back) and “ttyl”’s (talk to you later) have turned into “smh” (shaking my head), “tbh” (to be honest) and “lms” (like my status). Along with “ctfu” and “hyfr” which I’m sure most Bloomsburg University students know the meanings of.
So we’re told that YOLO is the motto to live by; go crazy and wild because you’re only going to get to do it once, perhaps another way to say Carpe Diem? Nonetheless, Bloomsburg students have certainly taken the advice from Drake. Senior Ryan Gallagher said, “I once scooted down Lighstreet on a razor scooter screaming ‘YOLO!’ while wearing two foam fingers and a construction hat. That was probably my most YOLO-esque moment.” Gallagher isn’t alone, sophomore Annie Sapio said, “I cut out eyes and a mouth on a paper plate once, and then I was dared to wear it on my face and go door to door asking for a can of pineapples, so I thought, YOLO, and did it. I called myself Plateman.”
Needless to say, many Bloomsburg students have had their fair share of YOLO moments, but is this slang term slowly starting to phase out like the rest? Junior Chelsea Buch said, “YOLO was funny for a little, but now people overuse it too 
much and constantly use it as an excuse to do something ridiculous for no reason.” The many YOLO-joke inspired Twitter accounts have also seemed to drift from popularity, being outshined by Grumpy Cat and Sloth memes.
Are we on to bigger and better slang phrases? Well that’s all in the opinion of Bloomsburg University students; were today’s phrases ever bigger and better than the ones we grew up with? The majority of current students are 90’s kids so one might be curious, what do 90’s kids like better: 90’s/2000’s slang, or today’s slang? A random poll of 8 males and 8 females was used to determine their era of slang preference, and the results were quite interesting. 75% of the males prefer 90’s/2000’s slang terms, whereas the females were split 50/50 on their preferences. Either way, these slang phrases will continue to evolve with future generations; our “oh snap!”’s have turned into YOLO, so what will YOLO turn into? Tweet your favorite 90’s, 2000’s and current slang phrases at @bunowcom !
