Today's common words – they can annoy, drive you crazy – just sayin'

"You've got to understand."

"Whatever!"

"Just sayin'"

"Awesome!"

"Totally!"

"Like ... you know"

"Dude!"

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely!"

Have you heard these words lately? Chances are you have, whether from your child, a co-worker, a clerk in a store, a sibling, your spouse or, OK – even your own parent.

We've become slaves to phrases and words that now take up the vocabulary of millions across the globe – each providing apparently suitable ways to comment on just about anything.

My pet peeve is, "You've got to understand." I hear it constantly from my grown son when he wants to convey that his job, child or life is worse than anyone else's in the world.

No, I don't "got" to understand anything. I've lived 57 years – been there, done that.

I admit I enjoy the "just sayin'" phrase and don't know why I even use it. Mostly I find myself tagging it at the end of a comment on Facebook. My mother would say it makes no sense and why do I use it?

She would be right. For someone who was raised poor and whose father refused to allow her to attend school after the eighth grade, she struggled to teach herself better manners, etiquette, the arts, a vocabulary and style all her life, she would abhor the use of such slang.

Phrases used over and over again drove my English major sister crazy. "Awesome or Amazing" could send her over the edge as does the phrase, "Having said that."

As a society, we've gotten how to use proper English. For decades now, "know what I mean," and "you know?" have become part of everyday conversation. It's as if we've forgotten how to speak properly.

Ever notice those who constantly say, "to make a long story short ... " the story is NEVER shorter, but I have heard this phrase repeated unceasingly in a lengthy conversation with a person before.

Where has all this come from?

We are now a society that lives by its cellphones. We can't put them down and texting has become the order of the day. Unless you are a deft teenager, you can't text quickly, so we tend to use abbreviations and incomplete sentences, along with the standard phrases.

I have one family member who insists on saying, "Love yaz" - what is that? First time I saw it I thought he misspelled the word, but now he even says it the same way, "Love yaz" instead of I love you. Yaz has to be short for "yous," and that isn't a proper sentence either.

When did we, as a society become so illiterate?

I'm sure plenty of my readers have seen the new Sprint commercial with James Earl Jones and Malcom McDowell. I've never even heard half of what they say in this commercial, but it's just an example of the words and phrases in use today.

Totes Magotes got to me, so I had to look it up. Seems that the older exclamation, "Totally" made more popular by the Valley Girl years of the 1980s is now "Totes Magotes" and means basically the same thing.

Next time you are out and about, chatting with your teenager, or simply watching a movie, pay attention to the dialogue and you'll notice the odd phrases and words that have crept into the 21st century vocabulary.

I'll say this:

I find it most inappropriate to listen to those who insist I got to understand as they make a long story short yet proceed to – like, you know – tell me the most amazing sight they've seen on their incredibly long drive, in which they also saw an awesome car.

When I question them further, all I get is: "Seriously Dude" (do I LOOK like a dude? I am a 57-year-old grandmother).

Their final answer is, "Whatever."