Real Estate · Riyadh Daily
Name: Hello. Age: 200 years old. Status: Under threat of extinction.
That’s ridiculous – we’ve been saying hello to each other for millions of years. Well, that isn’t true. As I just mentioned, the word appeared in print a couple of hundred years ago.
But it’s a deviation of ‘holla’, ‘hollo’, ‘halloo’ or ‘hillo’, all of which were used in English as attention-grabbing noises since at least the 16th century. But we use it all the time now. Only because of the telephone.
After the phone’s invention by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, Thomas Edison decided that a new standardised greeting needed to be invented. Why? Because previously people tended to greet each other with time-based salutations, such as ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’.
But the telephone could instantly cross time zones, which made these redundant. But why hello? Because Edison preferred it to Bell’s favoured ‘Ahoy-hoy’.
Shame. I know. Anyway, forget all that, because nobody says hello anymore.
Technology has marched on again: everyone has a smartphone with caller ID now. Why go through the charade of a ‘hello’ when you already know who’s calling you? I don’t know, basic politeness?
Tell that to Gen Z. The New York Times has reported on the death of hello, stating that young people now prefer to answer the phone with ‘Hi’, ‘What’s up?’ or ‘Yeah?’. A survey last year revealed that 40% of 18-24 year-olds feel it is acceptable to answer the phone without any form of greeting.
Still, it’s nice. Only if you love AI scammers. What the hell?
Where did that come from? You didn’t hear about this? Apparently, scammers can now replicate your voice with AI, cloning it from your telephone greeting, and use it to beg your loved ones for money.
This is a real thing covered by consumer watchdogs like Which?, the BBC, and the Guardian. The best way to beat it is to remain silent until you are sure it’s a friendly human being on the other end. Hello is becoming obsolete.
Source: The Guardian
