Ok, I’ve got serious issues with the word ‘Addicting‘ and it’s rampant use on ye olde internete (plus it’s a slow blogging night)
I know, I know, the debate over addictive and addicting has been raging on for what seems like decades (in internet time). And really, how seriously must we debate language on the net when so much of it is bastardized anyway? Most of the Internet is made up of bad writing, porn, and well, that’s pretty much it.
The thing is, it gets under my skin EVERY TIME the word Addicting pops up in a search, an ad, or a blog, so something must be done about it. Common examples are as such:
A quote: “That game is so addicting!”
An advert: “Free addicting games!”
The worst though, is when you start typing addictive in Google’s search window and the auto-complete gives you “addicting games” after you’ve only typed the letters “ad”. This tells us that we, those who fight for Addictive‘s contextual supremacy, are losing the battle. Why? Because when the majority of people are wrong, then advertisers must stoop to their level to reach them. At this point, I must digress.
Apparently, Addicting actually is a word (yet I haven’t actually found concrete proof in Websters online dictionary) but it’s a transitive verb. Addictive however, is an adjective, and we don’t replace adjectives with verbs. Why? Because those are the rules. If we break the rules, we end up like this and destroy the human race. So based on those rules, addicting does not mean addictive.
Man, I even checked Wikipedia for addicting and came up with nothing. And the internet never ever lies. There’s an article about Addiction and addictive comes up in the text. No addicting though, so maybe there is hope after all.
Bah. I’ve said all I care to say about this. I’m going to stick in some Google ads just to annoy myself further. Trust me. They’ll say addicting.
OH GOD YES! Needed this little rant. I first noticed the issue on the android market when people kept saying “this game is very addicting”. Makes you want to kill babies to save them from the torment of growing up with people like that.
Just saw it on an actual review website, and thought that someone else may have already voiced my annoyance. Thanks.