YOLO?

Every year, the internet community is blessed by new, refreshing acronyms that become widespread in our gradually more facile conversations. This year's one is YOLO.

YOLO, a term coined by the american rapper Drake, stands for You Only Live Once, a fairly obvious statement telling people to live their lives by the fullest as our time on this planet is short. It's a fair enough argument, people should do as much as they can before their inevitable death but the superficiality surrounding this 'movement' is jarring.

First of all, it's a very simplistic philosophy:Most people at an early age can figure out that it's good to try new things and be adventurous and is something usually endorsed by their parents. If people need to be told by social networkings sites such as facebook or twitter how to live their lives, their is truly something innately wrong with them.

Second of all, it's lead to such idiotic consequences from people who are taken the whole concept too far. Hearing about someone getting drunk and then regretting it the day after when nursing their hangovers only to exclaim YOLO is just vacuous. If that is someones personal understanding of YOLO, they lead very sad lives and have obviously not fully understood the actual concept.

And finally, most people are probably not aware of this but the phrase "Carpe diem" meaning 'seize the day' represents exactly what YOLO is trying to achieve, and it's been around since the ancient Greeks.

If people wish to live such Epicurean lives then so be it, but as the ever so wise Jack Black remarked "YOLO is Carpe Diem for stupid people", yes, yes it is.