This Is An Intervention, Literally

This is an intervention, literally.

lit·er·al·ly [lit-er-uh-lee]

–adverb
1. in the literal or strict sense
2. in a literal manner; word for word: to translate literally.
3. actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy.
4. in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually.

(definitions pulled from dictionary.com. Thanks a bunch!)

To use the term “literally” means that you are not being metaphorical, figurative, or symbolic. You are being literal, hence the use of the term “literally” [vicious cycle isn’t it?!] The moment you use the term “literally” to describe something being over-the-top amazing, big or wonderful, you are usually questioning your own credibility.

Example?

There were literally a million ants surrounding the anthill in our driving.
So, you are telling me that you actually took the time to count and confirm that there were a million ants, or were there just a lot of them? How can you be sure you didn’t miscount?

Sally died of laughter…literally.
Really? Because unless you recently attended Sally’s funeral and her autopsy concluded that she did, infact, die from self-enduced laughter, then no, Sally didn’t literally die of laughter.

I ate nothing today. I am literally starving.
Calm down. You are not starving. Starving means your body is shutting down and saving all of its energy for vital uses. The fact that you can actually state that you are starving proves that you are not. You are hungry, eat a granola bar…and start using literally correctly.

When I heard a crash, I literally flew down the hall.
Wow! Congratulations on being the first person to fly anywhere! Unless you are some sort of superhero, you most certainly didn’t fly down the hall, but most likely ran down the hall at a very quick speed. Perhaps figuratively you were flying, but you most certainly weren’t in a literal sense, and if you were, you should bottle it and market it.

I literally lost my mind when I couldn’t find my car keys.
So, in addition to finding your keys, you will also need to find your actual brain that you seemed to have misplaced, because if you literally lost your mind, your physical brain matter is among the missing…

The Correct Way to use literally:

Asia is literally the biggest continent in the world.
Why yes, yes it is.

The entire town was literally wiped out; no one survived.
Sad, but grammatically accurate.

So to conclude, unless you really have received thousands of responses from your email asking for donations, leave out the term literal, or else you might find yourself losing the interest of your readers…literally.