Why do people keep adding this to their comments? Are they checking notes? Why do they feel the need to point it out if they are? Why are they saying they are if they aren’t? It’s like me adding “scratching head” to my comment, which I just did, but I have no idea why that adds anything to the conversation.
We all got our verbal tics. Also an attempt to add some more complexity to our communication, since we’re missing things like facial expressions or body language or environmental cues.
For dramatization, when some event is so stupidly, unexpectedly bizarre that you have to check your figurative notes to make sure you’re not just remembering a fever dream. Example:
America is rolling back renewable energy development to promote the use of beautiful, clean… (checks notes…) coal, of all fucking things.
it actually reached its peak in 2018 per this slate article: https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/checks-notes-was-the-perfect-trump-era-twitter-joke-lets-let-it-die.html
It was a big Twitter meme, like Yo Dawg I Heard You Like…, or Hawk Tuah, or Trogdor or whatever. People hear funny thing, repeat funny thing.
When something is really unbelievable (or sarcasticly unbelievable) people add “checks notes” to signify that they had to check their notes (figuratively) to make sure that they aren’t saying something false
It’s just a fad. Speech mannerisms also come and go with the times. Right now it’s popular to use it, and people use it.
It do be like that. Many of them get repeated till they reach a critical point and everyone is sick of them. Some of them are harder to tolerate than others though. I can deal with people ‘checking notes’ here and there but those who use “literally” as every second word in their sentences awaken a primal rage inside of me that is yearning for rock to split skull. Luckily that trend isn’t as prevalent as it used to be back in the day.
there but those who use “literally” as every second word in their sentences awaken a primal rage inside of me that is yearning for rock to split skull.
I hard agree. Misuse of literal is a problem many decades old and it hurts still
OK but the dictionary literally modified the definition to I clude “figuratively” because language is alive and unwell
That “modern” definition of literally is at least 250 years old. It wasn’t created by the internet, or even any living person.
fr fr on God no cap
And with all fads, it’s cyclical. But on the internet, things move quicker so instead of 20-30 years, it’s more like 5-10.
checks notes
It’s 80+ pages that only say “fuck”
John Stewart on the Daily Show, look him up
Life, uh, finds a way Life… Finds a way Life [checks notes] finds a way
Life, finds a way Life [deep breath] finds a way Life [lean away from the microphone to breathe in] finds a way Life [scratches head] finds a way?
Life [gestures vaguely to day care center] finds a wayThey are performative modifiers to add visual context to text. Imagine you’re reading a script for a play. The author adds notes like some of the examples above, in a similar format, in order to better convey what they want the actors to do, by text alone, to better convey the author’s intent to the audience.
I see it as “Looks back at history and sigh heavily” but with fewer words.
It’s the current trendy thing to say. Kind of like the term “executive dysfunction”
Sarcasm
Hell, I remember a time people just said “um”, “er” quietly and paused between words when they hadn’t thought the thought through.
Instead now they use ‘like’ as a space between words whilst the processing is still taking place.
It gets real confusing when what they’re explaining is the concept of similes.
checks notes
Not sure I didn’t write anything down I was just doodling
Check your autism, maybe you’ll figure it out
They used to say that prior to the computer phones. Now it is an antiquated saying that people use for fun.