"Whatever."

We've all used it. Whatever.

We've used it as a short response to Mom who told us something like "oh, I see you're not wearing very many clothes to school today" or "don't you think you're...uh... hangin' out of that top a bit?" as we came down the stairs for breakfast one morning.

We've used it to leave our options open, or to escape making a decision. "What do you guys want to do tonight?" Then, "Whatever! It's up to you."

We've used it to expose the trivialness in the obviously ridiculous statement someone just made. "Okay, WHAT.EVER. That doesn't even make sense!"

We've used it to deflect a personal attack. "I think you're being ridiculous right now." "Whatever."

Here's urban dictionary's take"

Whatever

A polite and less vulgar alternative to "FUCK YOU".

Jack: "Wow, what happend to you? You look like hell today!" 

Jill: "Whatever"

I'm sure you've heard it a million different times in a million different ways. But the point is, what does "whatever" really mean? It's one of the few words that been so stripped of its denotational value and is almost always evaluated based on its connotation whenever it's used in a sentence.

I don't know about you, but whenever some one says, "Whatever" and that's it, a red flag goes up. Time to negotiate, time to try and cheer them up.

So is that what it is? A plead for something more?
I don't know.
Whatever.

An Audience that Doesn't Want to Listen

I don't know about the rest of you- but have you ever had someone advertise an exciting trip to Australia, or a new study abroad program, or a summer internship at the beginning of one of your classes? After asking the professor if it's okay, they proceed to throw stats and figures at you, jump around a little bit and then high tail it out of there so not to make the professor angry that they're taking up so much class time. You, the audience, on the other hand, have just been hit by a truck and now some sign up sheet is being passed around your 500 person class and there's only one name on it and you're at the back.

So-why doesn't this work? What interrupts the connection between the speaker and the audience? I think it's a number of factors.

First of all, the audience didn't come to class that day to hear that speaker talk. This doesn't mean they won't eventually be interested, but it does interrupt the engagement part of the civic engagement process.

Second of all, the speaker is most likely speeding through their sales pitch to get out of that professor's way. They're operating under a time constraint. When this happens, advertisements don't have time to persuade you on a logical basis- they rely on peripheral processing. They're counting on you to skip the reasoning and to remember the "zips and the zaps" of the speech that can be seen as tone inflection, buzz words like "opportunity" and "adventure."

Where does this leave you? Well usually I'm just confused and feeling like I don't have enough information and when they ask "any questions?" they scan the room real quick and then say, "great, thanks for your time! So then I think, "Ah screw it," and the stress of actively processing something is done and over...until the beginning of my next class.