Why Are We Calling Everything Toxic?

There are people who had a relationship with someone who constantly and systematically manipulated and abused them. Or people who has been around someone, be it a friend or a family member who casts malicious doubts to their every plan. Or someone who grew up in a household that left them an emotional scar that they carried throughout their lifetime. All of these are genuine toxic situations. People who experienced these things go through daily battles to avoid being reminded of that phase in their life. But sadly, the word has been getting loosely thrown around too often these days that I think it would eventually lose its true meaning, if it hasn't yet. This is a disservice to those people who actually had been in such situation.

Actually, I'm not even sure if people truly knows the actual meaning of the word. A lot of people are treating their life as a spotless piece of cloth that any slight lint of inconvenience from someone or something should be labeled as "toxic" and be removed at all cost. The danger here is that instead of taking full responsibility of their problems, it promotes a culture where people are quick to blame others for their situations.

A workplace is not toxic just because you have a demanding boss. It is just that, you have a demanding boss. It is important to use precise language to describe a situation or a person because this would help facilitate a more constructive conversation around it. People and situations are usually more complex and nuanced that using the word "toxic" as an umbrella term to describe it is being simplistic and often inaccurate.

It seems that people are just tossing it out to label others that doesn't share their opinion on something. Someone is not being toxic just for having a different opinion from the majority. It's the way people had always been and will continue to do so. When there are competing ideas, people usually converse about it in a civilized manner. And if they're lucky, one side would be able to make the other change their mind. Or not. And that's fine. People moves on with their lives with no bitterness towards the other.

Be wary of people who casually labels everything as toxic. It's unproductive and it's one of the fastest way to suck the life out of every room.