Hey!!! . . . is it the new "hi"?

My Dad told me the other day, "You know, Son, people used to say 'hi' instead of 'hello'; now they're saying 'hey.' It's the goofiest thing I've ever heard."

Perhaps it is true. I feel much more comfortable greeting all my peers with a hey as opposed to a hi. In fact, since my dad's comment I've tried using hi instead of hey, and I have realized how awkward it feels. I must be a product of my generation, and my generation must be into saying hey.

So the question is, what is the nature of hey, and how is it used? Well, obviously, the main usage we are discussing here is that of a greeting. I have a sense that, to most of us who use it, it feels more laid-back than hi, and sounds less pretentious. In a way we feel that hi is somewhat formal, and and requires a certain amount of social readiness on the part of the greeter. So if you say, "hi," you must mean to greet someone whom you haven't seen for a while, and even if you don't say, "hello! how are you doing?" you still communicate a similar sentiment of courtesy by it.

Hey, not necessarily unlike any other gretting, does permit the greeter to be more or less concerned or distracted with whomever is being greeted. While hi is courteous, hey can be less courteous, and can communicate more recognition than actual greeting. So I think when my father says that people saying, "hey!" sounds ridiculous, I believe I see where he is coming from. It is less courteous in that while it certainly gives recognition to someone, it can sometimes do little more, and can even seem disrespectful to some people.

Hey is most useful when greeting friends. When using it, it is socially acceptable to give a voice inflection of choice to communicate one's sentiment for the other person. For a while I wondered if hey allowed for more inflection than did hi, but after much consideration, I cannot imagine that this is so. Alas, hey just so happens to be in vogue, and so it is used more often.

So I'm not exactly sure what it is, but 'hey' sounds cooler than 'hi.' My dad is right in a way: it's the goofiest thing--language, that is. It's always changing. That's why not one country in the world has Latin as its official language. Well, maybe we are more inconsiderate for using hey. Perhaps our generation will turn the next into incivilized good-for-nothings. I hope not. And I will not cease to use 'hey,' because I like it.

*above photo by Nika Vee*