Why is everyone suddenly nonchalant? Like for real, what are you even being nonchalant for? It’s not as cool as you think.
I have friends who are nonchalant and honestly, it just feels draining when they act like they don’t care. I’ll ask to hang out and the answer’s always, “yeah, I’m cool with whatever,” but do you even want to hang out? When I text this huge paragraph and get a one-two word response, it makes me feel like I’m desperate for a conversation. Don’t even get me started on the DM lag. Why am I waiting six-seven hours for a reply to “Wsp.” You’re not that busy. You’re just trying to act like you don’t care, and it doesn’t make you mysterious, it just makes you distant.
It’s a different story if you’re actually nonchalant. I find people who are actually “nonchalant” genuinely nice to be around. They’re chill, minding their own business and genuinely want you to take the lead. However, when some people try so hard to change their personality, the way they talk and act like they don’t care, it gets on my nerves. Everyone knows what kind of person you are and changing your whole lifestyle because of what others may think of you is just doing too much. When the nonchalance culture becomes a “trend,” it gets really annoying.
Not to add, nonchalance is boring. It kills conversations, and it ruins the mood. You think saying less makes you rise above everyone else, but it just makes you look like you have no personality, no opinion and no interest of your own. Conversations aren’t puzzles for people to solve; conversation is a mutual interaction between two or more people.
Hear me out: being “chalant” — the accepted slang term for the opposite of nonchalant, meaning interested and attentive — is better. When you care out loud, when you actually react to messages, that’s when you really connect with the people around you. Being chalant means you’re present and you’re not pretending to be cool or too busy to care. Chalant people actually live in the moment instead of standing on the sidelines.
So, yeah. Like influencer Eric Ou says, “Nonchalant out. In with the chalant.”
