It’s understandable when you want to be discrete about what you do on your own time, but that doesn’t mean you should be dishonest and say something completely different. The phrase “Netflix and chill” has become so popular this year that you can find it on almost any social media website.

Any of your peers who unwind on the internet on a daily basis will know what it means. What is alarming is that you will discover it does not actually mean relaxing on the couch watching an episode of “Orange is the New Black” while munching on banana chips with your cat. “Netflix and chill” has taken up a whole new definition. It means having sex.

Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with having sex. It is a human activity that everyone will have to talk about in their life and there is no avoiding it. But what is wrong here is how misleading the new term “Netflix and chill” is.

When someone is asking you if you want to watch Netflix and chill, the first thing that will pop into your mind is the idea that you two will actually watch Netflix and chill. But instead, you are in a different situation, a step further in a direction you may or may not be ready to go. Either way, you and another person are going to have a conversation that you won’t be able to escape from.

This generation seems to create new ways to say words and phrases every year. For example let’s remember the early 2000s when “lol” was created to tell someone that you were “laughing out loud”. Think about how many people type that with a straight face. Then there was last year’s word, “bae” to describe a person you put “before anyone else.” But can you really put another person before anyone else 24/7? And let’s not leave out the most infamous phrase, “Ily” which translates to “I love you.” It’s disappointing to know that some people find it too exhausting to say those three special words.

People need to be aware that as time passes by, these words will have no meaning to anyone anymore. They aren’t genuine or timeless. Overuse of slang is only discrediting the value of human language.

For the case of “Netflix and chill”, more people are learning the true meaning of the term so there’s just no point anymore. You won’t be hiding anything. And a person might think it would work on their parents, but the rise of social media in everyone’s lives will change that. They will eventually catch on. The exact purpose of this phrase is diminishing the more it becomes famous. You might as well tell your friends you’re going to have sex bluntly because let’s be real, sex is already a big deal. It affects how we see ourselves, how we see the other person and life in general. Let’s not make it more complicated than it needs to be.