The Words We Hated Hearing The Most On Social Media In 2017

“Let that sink in” is the most intensely hated phrase to be uttered on social media, according to a study of 2,000 UK adults earlier this month.

‘Snowflake”, “fake news”, and “woke” are among the other widely disliked social media phrases.

But “let that sink in”, a phrase commonly used to accompany a so-called shocking statistic or fact, is the most passionately disliked, albeit by fewer people.

“Snowflake” scored the highest for simply being annoying, and “fake news” got the highest ranking for being overused. “Let that sink in” ranked highest for being patronising.

In general, overused or annoying turns of phrases got a moderately negative reaction, while patronising language evoked a stronger reaction.

Why do we hate the words?

Renowned psychologist Professor Sir Cary Cooper believes rapid overexposure to certain words or phrases can accelerate our dislike process.

“Idioms and memes hit saturation point very quickly on social media. It’s not that these words or phrases are any more irritating on social media than in the offline world; it’s the daily exposure to the same phrases that intensifies our reactions.

“So if a term that has the potential to grate on you offline gradually, it’s guaranteed to get your blood boiling if you see it every day on social media. Especially if you've got a preconception about the person using it.”

About the study

Researchers collected social media data throughout the year to determine which new phrases were entering common social media usage.

At the start of December 2017, they asked 2,000 UK adults to select how they felt about each word or phrase from a batch of 50 and then to attribute a score from 1-10 describing how strongly they felt this.