A new trend, which is only a few months old, is coming to light and is randomly appearing in conversations everywhere…
there seems to be a pattern emerging…
I have no idea what sparked it, or why people feel the need to insert it whenever they find the opportunity. But it’s bloody annoying.
there seems to be a pattern emerging…there seems to be a pattern emerging…
F*ck your emerging pattern, I’m tempted to say. But let’s keep things somewhat professional.
My only guess is that the people who use it are trying to sound more intelligent than they actually are – as if they’ve just made some scientific breakthrough, or have used the powers of their super-sharp detective skills, or something.
Most of the time there’s nowhere near enough evidence to suggest a pattern – most people are happy to claim the miraculous discovery after just two occurrences. (In my book, a pattern would take at least four, but it depends on the size of what’s being measured.)
But one common thing I’ve seen with the uses of that phrase, is the inference that there’s something inherently wrong with the person involved, usually mentally. Patterns have a lot to do with the way somebody or something behaves, and I have never heard the term used to comment on something that’s good.
For example, I was in an interview with a not-so-good potential client (when I was holding on to freelancing), and the issue of abuse came up when talking about university and one previous client. Only two instances of abuse, but apparently “a pattern was emerging” – or otherwise suggesting that I was unable to take “pressure”.
I’d enquired on a well-known message board about opening a basic bank account, which proved to be difficult because of a bad credit rating. Somehow another “pattern emerged” (which was eventually exposed as bullshit; my credit rating had suffered because of an uncancelled credit card with a tiny remaining balance), which was a suggestion that I didn’t know how to handle money.
Speaking of “patterns emerging”, I had been looking at my basic weblog stats for the past week. You will never guess what my most viewed post was.
Come on, guess.
I won’t tell you, but the word black was a big part of it. It has had twice as many views as the second most popular post. I believe that it says a lot about what people are experiencing.
Do I see a… pattern emerging?
(yes, +2 IQ!)
Tags: Conversations, Detective Skills, Discovery, Inference, Instances, New Trend, Occurrences, people, Phrase