I have a little thing that I am sensitive to.
What happened to the word “response”. I have always thought of the word response as meaning a thoughtful opinion on something. But have you noticed it very seldom ever gets used now. Everyone reacts in the media, no one responds.
Is that a reflection of the aggressive superficial time we live in?
The word reaction has to do with a physical or emotional consequence caused by a stimulus, such as physical conditions (cold, heat, a sharp object, a fall, disease, blunt trauma, etc.) or by spoken words, written words, or actions. A reaction is generally an unconscious or involuntary one.
The word response generally has to do with an action, either a physical action or something that you say. It is generally, but not always, a conscious decision. Sometimes it is based on a person’s emotional reaction. Other times it is based on Soul-searching or an extended thought process. There’s an element of free will and forethought in a response.
Most often, the difference between a reaction and a response is how I feel about something, versus what I’m going to do about it.
