In recent weeks I have been listening to television and radio reports about something “going viral.”  I was having a hard time trying to realize what the phrase “going viral” meant.  My wife, who pampers me, explained that “going viral” simply meant that the report had gained a tremendous amount of circulation.  I could have figured this out by myself, but in my mind “going viral” had to do with a disease of some kind or other.
An hour later there was a commentator who said, “At this point in time, reports about a youngster having sexual relations with John F. Kennedy is going viral.”  I have no comment about whether the young woman had sexual relations with John F. Kennedy, because I was not there.  But in terms of the language of the Anglo-Saxons, it is my firmly held belief that the phrase “at this point in time” and the thought about “going viral” are less than stellar additions to the language of the Anglo-Saxons.
In time I hope that these youngsters and the commentators will outgrow the need to say “at this point in time” or “going viral.”  But my guess is that if I were to listen to reports on radio some ten years from now, they may still use those two terms.  Now at least I have registered my objection, for which I expect the full praise of English teachers around the world.
 
E. E. CARR
February 12, 2012
Essay 636
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Kevin’s commentary:
These two phrases seem to have sparked particular ire in Pop, who revisits them both in an essay entitled “GOING VIRAL” written in May of this year. Occasionally Ezra’s Essays will repeat themselves a little bit but I find no harm at all in that.