English Professor Prohibits Discussion Board Post Responses Containing the Phrase "So True, Bestie"

The neurological damage caused by the Hyper Online social interaction many of us have been limited to over the past year may have left us without the faculties to communicate beyond trending catchphrases. Even without those factors, it’s no secret that the discussion board arena can get a little stale anyway; by the time 11:58 p.m. rolls around, there may only be so many interesting ways you can come up with to “totally agree” or declare that you’ve “never thought about it that way.” There’s no shame in wanting to spice things up, but perhaps some of us are getting a little overly familiar. 

“I got points off my discussion comment last week for being 'incomplete,' and honestly, I feel like my professor just doesn’t get it,” said junior Kirsten Oliver, looking down at her iPhone in perfect mid-retweet form. “‘So true, bestie’ isn’t necessarily about being ‘bestie’ – it’s about embodying ‘bestie,’ as well as being ‘so true.’ It’s actually pretty nuanced. Maybe also feminist? Anyway, you know bestie when you see bestie. And Heather’s scathing assessment in last week’s discussion board of Ayn Rand’s philosophical presence as a ‘posthumous libertarian Cool Girl wannabe’ was indeed, by all standards, so true, bestie. It was only right to let her know.”   

“I first noticed the phrase in chat during our weekly Zoom lectures,” said Girlbosses of Literary Past, Present, and Future professor Ingrid Adams, PhD. "Initially, I was just a little surprised. I thought, 'who knew so many of my students were so close! What are the odds!' But as time passed, and the phrase crept into and then replaced many of the class's discussion board replies, I figured something else was going on and I had to put a stop to it. Per the rubric I supplied in the syllabus, I'm looking for greater depth in our analyses of the many girlbosses we cover in this course. I don't think three words can provide that. Moving forward, such responses will receive no points towards the discussion participation grade, even if the comments they are in response to are in fact so true, or even written by the student's real-life bestie."

Is this just another instance of the linguistic supremacy that runs rampant within the realm of academia silencing the creative expression of students? It's possible. Is "so true, bestie" as a contemporary discussion board fixture a direct result of Forgetting About The Assignment Until 11:50 PM? Maybe so. The phrase holds magnitudes beyond such binaries, so the world may never know.