Central Argument: Robert Lane Greene says that just like the word "awesome," many things take on a different meaning and evolve over time.
Just like organisms that learn to adapt to a new environment, words and concepts in general take on a different meaning over time. They evolve through their journey with time, changing and becoming something new and different depending on the time period. Just like the evolution of the word "awesome," as explained in Robert Lane Greene's article, The Rise of "Awesome," many words and way of life take on a new meaning and evolve over time.
Like the word "awesome," certain things that society perceives as "acceptable" change over time. The first example that comes into mind is one's body figure. Back in the twentieth century, to be beautiful was to be chubby. Women who were chubby and "healthy" were seen as beautiful. Being plump was also a way of displaying power and wealth. Many advertisement used beautiful, chubby woman to promote products like cigarettes and alcohol. This was what was "in" back in the day. However, as time went on, this started changing. People's perspective about what was considered "beautiful" started to change. Being thin became socially accepted; if people were thin, they were beautiful. Those who were chubbier were made fun of. And till now, in the twenty-first century, the trend still follows. So just like the word "awesome," social perspectives about various things, like a "beautiful" figure, started changing over time.
Not only social perspectives, other words have also taken on new meaning over time. Like "awesome," the word "nigger" has taken on a different meaning. In Spanish, it means a "black object." From the very beginning, the word took on a negative meaning when it was used to label African slaves. It became an offensive term to use against Africans or people from African decent. However, as time went on, and pop culture started triggering, the "nigger" was used as a replacement for the words like brother or friend or "dude." When used among "black people," it wasn't such a rude term anymore. Hip-hop music started using this word in its lyrics. Although it is still extremely rude for someone to call a black person "nigger," the meaning of the word has evolved a fair bit.
Just like words, friendships evolve and change over time too. When anyone is little, a good friend is the one who admires your handwriting, who plays "catch" with you, who learns the alphabets with you. She is the one who shares her candy with you, who helps you climb down the monkey bars, and who builds sand castles with you. If you two fight, all will be forgotten by the next morning, or, as seen in Mean Girls, your friendship will terminate right there. And as you grow and start to mature up, your friendship grows and changes. Now, friendship is not only limited to material things, but something more. That good friend will be with you through your hard times, she will encourage and support you when you need it, she will comfort you when you are sad, and laugh with you when you're happy. She will do crazy things with you. Like in the movie Something Borrowed, if you fight, it might leave a heavy scar, but you will eventually learn to move on because you care for each other. Therefore, just like the word "awesome," friendships also change and take on a different meaning in life.
These three examples show us how, like the word "awesome," many words and things in everyday life take on different meaning as time goes on.
