• @Willy@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    27 months ago

    “I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.

    literally capture them? you should be literally ejected from office.

    • @tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      3
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally

      literally

      (degree, figuratively, proscribed, contranym) Used non-literally as an intensifier for figurative statements: virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)

      Synonym: virtually

      He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air.

      I agree that it’s a goddamn obnoxious use of the word that is a recipe for ambiguity, but I think that the battle over this has been lost.