Sick - Remediating The Meaning
"That's so sick." When you first read or hear those words, what is the first thought that comes to mind? For some people, they may picture a scene in which a person is physically sick with a boiling hot fever, the nasty stomach bug, or maybe even the dreaded influenza “flu” virus. Maybe some people imagine a person, enclosed by stark white walls of a psychiatric institution, suffering from a legitimate mental illness such as schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder. To others still, the phrase “That’s so sick” could bring to mind something that is positive, desirable, or awesome. This usage of the word “sick” can commonly be seen in popular culture today, especially on social media sites such as Twitter. Due to the word’s versatility, “sick” can be used in a variety of situations to refer someone, something, or some situation that is either negative or positive. While the varying contexts of the word “sick” alter its exact, literal meaning, the general sense of the word remains the same. In short, the overarching meaning of the word “sick” is that it refers to something that is outside of its normal or usual state in either an undesirable or desirable way. In the following pages of this project, the word "sick" will be analyzed in the contexts of Twitter and the inspirational written piece entitled "The Spoon Theory". |
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