• Willy@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    6 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.

    • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 months ago

      Spend 5 minutes on any HS campus during passing period and you’ll see that it’s correct to say capture.

    • tal
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      6 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.