Who Cares?

Who Cares?

We've all heard it before. A friend is talking endlessly about her ex’s newest fling, and she says “I could care less if he’s dating her!” Suddenly confusion enters the conversation. All along it seemed as if she was trying so hard to act indifferent, but now it appears as if she does care. “So, you do care?” one may ask. “No! I just said I didn’t!”

This is an example of the misuse of the phrase, “I couldn’t care less”.

When people say “I could care less”, it shows they care, at least a little bit. It’s when someone couldn’t care any less that shows how they absolutely have no interest in the situation.

Though it is completely incorrect to say, it is an understandable mistake. It seems as if now more people use the wrong phrase than the right one. In society today, it's almost uncommon to hear the corrects usage of the phrase. Most likely the person you are speaking to will catch on eventually, but there are still valid reasons to correct your ways:

• Saying “I could care less” makes the speaker sound unintelligent and uninformed.
• The listener can become confused, and then discredit the rest of what the speaker is saying.
• It makes the speaker seem like they do care about whatever it is they care nothing about.

Very often when having a conversation with someone and he/she says “I could care less”, it is that statement that makes the person sound as ignorant as a child. One negative can outweigh many positives, just as one wrong term can stand out much more than everything else someone says. From then on out, the person who misused the term will seem uneducated and foolish.

Using this term could also confuse whoever is being spoken to. They may also think that that is the correct way to phrase it and begin to say, “I could care less” themselves, thus creating an endless cycle of inaccurate speech. Or, if the person listening is an educated person and realizes that what has been said was, in fact, wrong, they may completely ignore the rest of what was said. Someone of intelligence would not want to fill their mind with the rants of a senseless person.

The worst scenario though, is if the person listening thinks he/she actually does care. If people care so little as to think they could not care any less; they could not possibly muster up one little ounce if care, then having someone else think they care would be a tragedy. If a person could absolutely not care any less about—let’s say sports—for example, but say “I could care less”, he/she could wind up having to listen to endless hockey or football conversations because someone thinks he/she actually does care!

The best way to stop the spread of this dangerous phrase is to vow to not use it yourself. Whether you use it or not though is really up to you, I could care less.

Source: http://www.alyssonfergison.com/couldnt-care-less-or-could-care-less/

A visual example of my point.