HELLO AND GOODBYE DOOMED!!

Ocean’s 13”, the opening scene. The movie starts with a robbery at a store. Seconds before breaking open the vault, Rusty’s (Brad Pitt) rings and he answers it with a, “yeah”. Look at any number of movies, and notice the phone conversations. People just don’t say “hello” any more.Whether it is the movies that started the trend, or popular phone culture that prompted the shift in movies, “hello”, the most common verbal greeting in English-speaking countries, is being slowly relegated to history.Young people are forever looking for ways to rebel against the cut and dried rules that go with languages and any breakthroughs in the use of language would usually come from the young and the restless. The greeting can depend on various factors, including the attitude of the caller, whether the number is known, how busy the person at that moment, the location and the current relationship with the caller. Sometimes you can just say, ‘Man'.People tend to take more liberties with the greeting if the caller is someone they are comfortable with. The dudes said they tend to go give traditional salutations the go by if the caller happens to be a close friend. “Well, I’d usually pick up the call and go like, ‘Wassup!’ or ‘Yeah, temme...’ If it’s a friend calling after a long time, conversations usually start with, ‘Finally!’ or ‘Are you alive?’”“I generally say ‘Where are you?’ if it’s a close friend or if the call is expected. It depends on who is calling and the situation,”.

It is also not just the greeting that has undergone an overhaul. Even the traditional farewell phrase, ‘goodbye’ hasn’t survived the vicissitudes of popular language. It is increasingly being substituted with more popular phrases such as — ‘take care’, ‘later’ etc.Remember the 1968 Doors song, which had Jim Morrison crooning “Hello, I love you”? Ever wondered how the song would go if it were to be remixed today?