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When Did “I Appreciate You” Replace a Simple “Thanks”?

Everybody just gets more annoying.

Bev Potter
2 min readDec 15, 2023
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

As an alleged writer, I’m fascinated by phrases — the shorthand we mindlessly use to communicate with each other.

I’m okay with all the stupid slang the kids use. Slay away. I use to say “bizarre” and “awesome” approximately one thousand times a day, so he who is without sin, etc., etc.

But when grown people started saying “top of mind” as some kind of stand-alone phrase, instead of “at the top of my mind” like normal human beings, something in me snapped.

And then somebody appreciated me, and I came this close to going on a killing spree.

Somehow, somewhere — and I bet it was started by some 20-year-old,filter-faced Instagram influencer — “I appreciate you” replaced “Thank you”, for the sole purpose of pissing me off.

The phrase “I appreciate you” somehow manages to sound both fake and patronizing at the same time. It’s right up there with “Good for you!”, which has never, in the history of the world, been meant sincerely.

In fact, “Good for you!” means the exact opposite. It means, “You’re a moron.”

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Bev Potter
Bev Potter

Written by Bev Potter

Legal secretary by day, insomniac by night. Ally. BA, MA. Humor, pop culture, and things that make you think. My weekly-ish newsletter is bevpotter.substack.com

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