Catch Word #294 – Touch Grass

Hello and welcome to Catch Word, the QLIPs vocabulary series where we teach you idioms, slang, expressions, phrase-overbes and more that will help you build your English vocabulary which will improve your speaking and listening skills. Joining me today as my co-host is Indiana. Hey there, Indiana, how are you? Hey, Andrew, I am doing well. How have you been? I'm doing well as well, and Indiana. I think we have a couple of fun expressions today. I think maybe to an extent, they are appropriate for us because I think sometimes you could use these expressions maybe to talk about the kinds of lifestyles that we have, Indiana. And in fact, maybe you don't realize it, but you are the inspiration for this episode because you used one of these expressions in a recent QLIPs episode and I noticed that and I thought, "Oh, we got to expand on it and teach our listeners this expression in more detail in Catch Word." And so that's what we're doing here today. Guys, we're going to teach you two expressions that are kind of new and kind of like hip, slangy internet expressions that we use to talk about people who are always online and are always using the internet. And in fact, Indiana, I think it's not just you and me. It's like everybody these days. We're always connected, always online, always using apps and our phones and all of our devices. So these are very appropriate expressions, I think, for today's modern lifestyle. Guys, we'll get into our lesson here in a second and explain them and give you some examples of how to use these two great expressions. But before we do, I want to let you know that there's an interactive transcript and a study guide that is available for this episode for all QLIPs members. Inside the study guide, there will be detailed explanations and real-world examples of how you can use all of the interesting vocabulary that you hear me and Indiana use in this episode. There's also a quiz and more. So all QLIPs members can get the study guide and the interactive transcript. If you're not a QLIPs member yet, but you'd like to sign up, then just visit our website, QLIPs.com. You can learn about all of the details and do that there. Okay, let's get started with the lesson today, Indiana. I'll let you do the honors. What are the two key expressions that we're going to teach everyone today? Today, we're talking about the expression "touch grass" as an "go touch grass". You may have seen this online a few times or maybe even heard it in real life. We are also talking about being terminally or chronically online. So just grabbing a person as terminally or chronically online. Okay, very good. The first expression "touch grass" and the second one "cronically online" or terminally online. I think we use them both and they both have the same meaning. But let's start with "touch grass". So we know grass is like this plant that grows outside, right? Maybe you'd see grass growing in a park or maybe you'd see grass growing in a field. So just plant outside. Why would we tell someone to touch grass? When would we use this expression? You might expect that this would be something like you should reconnect with nature or enjoy some time outside, get some sun. But it's really specifically to tell somebody that they have been cooped up inside, staring at their phone or computer too long and getting way too deep into the internet, getting too disconnected from reality and what really matters. So this is sort of like almost an insult or a joke that you could say. You could tell somebody you need to go touch grass or Samantha has been online way too much recently. She really needs to touch grass. It's this criticism that you would make saying that somebody needs to reconnect with reality. Like they're getting too deep into the weeds, perhaps in conspiracy theories or like celebrity drama on social media and no longer in touch with what matters. Yeah, it reminds me of like when I look on Instagram and all I see on Instagram are beautiful people wearing expensive clothes, driving the nicest cars, traveling all the time and their lifestyles look really amazing, right? And it's really natural to feel jealous in those kinds of situations. It feels like everybody is living this extravagant, wonderful lifestyle except me. But then I close the app and I go outside and I notice, well, the world is filled with just regular people like me. Like Instagram is this weird place where all we see are these, you know, really fantastic lifestyles that are not really what most people actually live is not really reality. And so some people don't have that experience of seeing the real world and they're just so wrapped up in what they see online and they get a distorted view of reality. And so we use this expression often to talk about these people where they've lost what reality actually is. And they found themselves in like a weird corner of the internet or a dark corner of the internet. It might be about politics, it might be about conspiracy theories, it might be about ideas, about society, it could be like gender roles in society, it could be religious, it could be anything, but it's like how most normal people think it's very different from that. That's the key point. So anyone who has had this break with reality and found themselves in a weird corner of the internet and are spending too much time there, then we say, hey, you got to touch grass, you have to go outside and well, actually, it's not, this is a good point. When we say touch grass, we don't actually mean for someone to go outside and touch grass, right? It just means log off the internet, go spend some time with real people and connect and try and get back to ordinary life. I think that's the meaning here. Indiana, did you have anything else to add to that? Yeah, I think just jumping off on what you said there, like when you're spending so much mental energy and focus on something that really largely just exists online, like you mentioned some niche corner of the internet, some small community, maybe you're getting really deep into conspiracy theories or you're just super, super focused on this very kind of small community of people or small interest, right? And it could be like we mentioned celebrity drama or like yeah, conspiracy theories. If you're spending so much time and energy on that that it's affecting your like mental health relationships, that's when I would say, okay, touch grass. Right. It's really causing problems for you, you know, this interest or this obsession. Yeah, yeah, when it's causing problems, right? Like that's a good time to use it. Now, Indiana, I don't know if I would actually say this to somebody's face, like for example, Indiana, if you were spending too much time online and I noticed you behaving in some weird ways because of this, I don't think I would say Indiana go touch grass. Like to me, that seems too rude and too strong and I'm sure you probably feel the same way. Now, maybe if I was like in an argument, maybe with a family member, like if my brother were spending too much time online or something, I could maybe say, bro, go touch grass, dude, like what? You've lost track of what's real, you know, maybe in this situation, I would say something like that. But in general, I don't think I would use this with, you know, work colleagues or acquaintances or even friends, really, it seems too strong. So what kind of situations would you actually use this expression in? Yeah, I think it sounds very dismissive and insulting. I agree with you to say directly to somebody, right? If you're trying to end an argument and just get the last word, yeah, you say, "I'll touch grass, bro." Like come on. But if I was complaining about someone, maybe somebody's behavior to somebody else, I might say like, yeah, Michael really needs to touch grass or Bethany cannot stop talking about this weird conspiracy theory she's getting into, like, touch grass girl. Like I would say it complaining like that. But yeah, it's quite rude to say to someone's face about them. Yeah, or I think we would maybe use it to talk about different groups of people, right? Like in society, you could say, "Maybe I don't know. High school kids these days, they need to touch grass," or something, right? You could use it to talk about a certain segment of society. But using it to somebody's face, I think, yeah, is not really how we'd use it. And I do see this expression a ton online. So one of my addictions, maybe I need to touch grass, but one of my social media addictions that's hard for me to break is Reddit. So I spend a little bit too much time on Reddit, probably just reading through different discussions about news and different topics. And I see this one on Reddit often. People will get into an online online. argument and they'll say to somebody, go touch grass, meaning like log out of Reddit, stop posting so much. Go spend some time with your family, this kind of thing. Exactly. It's a good one liner to just end an argument or to be dismissive. So yeah, exactly because everything is so brief, comment based and write X, formerly known as Twitter, like you only have so many characters to use, like these short replies, it's easy to just like insult somebody or get the last word, say go touch grass bro. Yeah, it makes sense. I also see it mostly online and then I occasionally will hear it in day-to-day conversation, but mostly on social media. Yep. Good. Okay. Well, we have one example prepared for you guys. We're cutting it down just to one example today because like we said, we don't really use this expression too often when talking to people directly. So we have just one example and let's take a listen to it now. Here we go. Oh, I just saw John walked in the door. Listen, if he comes around talking to you about his flat or theory, just try to change this object. Oh, is he talking about that again? Man, John's a nice guy, but he really needs to touch grass and stop believing in these crazy ideas. All right. In this example, we heard two friends at a party and they were hanging out at the party, maybe just talking together and they noticed a new guest arrive at the party. John walked in the door and John's a nice guy, but he seems to really be obsessed and believe in this conspiracy theory, which is called the flat earth theory. Do you guys know this one, the flat earth theory? Some people believe that the earth is not round, that it's flat. And yeah, there are some people online. There's a community of we call them flat earthers who believe this idea. Now, of course, we know that the world is not flat. It's round. So the two friends are talking about John and they say he needs to touch grass, meaning he needs to stop believing in these conspiracy theories and instead just not waste his time doing that kind of thing. So I think this is the kind of situation where you would hear this expression used and maybe use it in your speaking as well, this kind of situation. In the end, let's move on to our second key expression for this episode, which as you mentioned earlier is terminally online or chronically online. And perhaps we should start by defining these two words terminally and chronically. What do these mean? So these are both adverbs that are often used in medical contexts. So if I said terminal illness or terminally ill, this means a disease that is going to kill you, right? Quite serious. Terminal means like you will die or it will end. And chronically or chronic, we use this to talk about diseases that are ongoing or conditions that are ongoing. So like if I said, I have chronically dry skin, then that means like this isn't just this week because it's really cold and dry out my skin is dry. Now this means this is an ongoing problem for me. So it's something that I deal with regularly. This is the opposite of like a cute, for example. So those are those medical origins with these were usually see these. But the reason that we're using them for to describe online is because we're kind of talking about this in a negative way. Our internet usage is so problematic that we're talking about it like it's a disease. Right. So right, I could say I am terminally online admitting that I am way too addicted to being online and paying attention to my little corner of the internet, whatever that is, probably scrolling on X or Reddit. Like you mentioned, or chronically online, which is basically the same thing. But I do think terminally online is just a little stronger because it has this like this is a fatal disease. I'm going to die from my internet addiction kind of joke behind it. So yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of people do use this as a joke, right? You could say, oh, I'm terminally online. You know, I think most people these days are really terminally online because even though we might not be sitting at our device scrolling 24/7, we all have smartphones that are around us almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And we have notifications. And like anybody can send me a message and I'll pick it up right away and see it. And so that means like we're almost always connected 24/7, right? So we use these expressions terminally online, chronically online, just to emphasize how much someone does spend on the internet or on apps or on social media, all of these different things. Okay. So what would be the difference then between terminally online, chronically online and touch grass? I have a feeling that they're pretty different, although they're similar, but the nuance is quite different. What is that nuance exactly? I would say like, you know, you could call yourself terminally online or chronically online and kind of, you're lightly criticizing your own bad habits of using the internet too much. And you could say this about a lot of people. And it's just not as hurtful or dismissive as touch grass, right? You really say touch grass when something is, somebody is online way too much and they're way too deep in some corner of the internet. And it's causing a lot of issues for their perception of reality and their relationships with others. And then, like, if someone is online, chronically online, like this is not so strong of a situation, I would say that about, yeah, like if somebody is scrolling through X all the time and tweeting all the time and checking like, you know, the latest news from their favorite celebrities, and it's just kind of like one of their big interests. And you know, maybe they spent a little too much time on it, but they're not like, their life is not being hugely impacted by this. Like you could just say, yeah, if these terminally online. Would you agree with me on this one, Andrew, or do you think there's some other distinctions here that I haven't covered? No, I think you did a great job there. I would say, yeah, touch grass is for a very serious situation where somebody has a break from the mainstream view about how reality works. And they have like these very, very different ideas about society, politics, science, these kinds of things. That would be somebody who needs to touch grass because they've lost that connection with reality. Terminally online, chronically online just means you spend too much time online. I think I realized I was a terminally online person when, you know, maybe I'm out for the day in Indiana and then I come home in the evening and instead of relaxing in the evening before I go to sleep by reading a book, I scroll on my phone, I doom scroll on my phone. That's like terminally online. That's when you're reaching for your device instead of doing some other activity. And I think, yeah, I probably should be reaching for a book and reading a novel or something, but instead I look at my phone. Not so great, but I admit it's true most days. Okay. So now that we're clear about what the meaning is and the kind of situations when we use it, let's hear an example. Again, we have another one prepared for you guys. It's a little drama here in Indiana and I will read it for you. So let's take a listen now. Here we go. I read that book sales are way, way, way down from a decade ago. I mean, are you surprised? Everyone's so terminally online these days that does not shock me one bit. All right. So in this short dialogue, a couple of friends are talking about book sales and that they have become way less than they used to be. They're way down from a decade ago. But one friend is really not so surprised about that because, yeah, everybody is using their phones all the time. Everybody's online. There's some, this, this bright screen in our hands is drawing way more attention from us than the boring flat paper book. Yeah, people just are truly reading less these days. So she is not surprised. She says everybody is terminally online. So it's really not a shocking piece of news. Indiana, I like that expression that we heard in the example that doesn't shock me one bit. That doesn't shock me one bit, which is just a great like chunk to memorize, right? A really natural phrase that you could say when something is not shocking or not surprising at all. It doesn't shock me one bit. I'd encourage all of our listeners just to memorize that chunk and you can use it when you're not surprised by something. Your English will sound super supernatural. Okay, well, I think we're pretty much at the end here for this episode. Everyone, thank you for listening all the way to the end. You can pat yourself on the back for finishing a great English lesson here today with me and with Indiana. Of course, we'd like to turn things over to you now. You've done some English listening, but it's time to be active with your English. And you can do that by being terminally online. I'm sorry. The ways that we have to. The connect with you guys are all online. So we do have to be terminally online to do this, but we have our Discord server, which is the place where our community gathers and we practice our English and grow our skills together. It would be a great place to practice using some of these expressions. And you could make some example sentences and share them with us and our community there. Of course, it's free to join and the link to do so is in the description for this episode. Plus, we're gonna have some speaking classes about this episode and we'll talk about some of these issues that we've discussed in more detail. It's a cool way to talk with me and to talk with Indiana and other awesome, highly motivated English learners from around the world, just like yourself. If you wanna join the speaking classes though, you do have to be a member. Check out our website, qlubs.com for all of the details about membership and you can sign up and become a member today. Guys, take care and we'll catch you in the next episode. Until then, goodbye. - Bye everybody.