Christopher Borrelli: This column is iconic. Somewhere back there, ‘iconic’ became the most meaningless word in the world

CHICAGO — Oscar weekend seems as good a time as any to break the news:

Nothing is iconic anymore.

Iconic is dead. No one or thing is iconic now. Brad Pitt isn’t iconic. Zendaya isn’t iconic. The Oscar statue isn’t iconic. Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Angela Bassett — not a one is iconic now. Closer to home, The Bean is also not iconic. Michigan Avenue is not iconic. Chicago’s skyline is not iconic.

Chicago itself is no longer iconic.

Sorry. But everyone and everything and every place on earth (and beyond) is now — thanks to social media, traditional media, and the collective efforts of millennials and Gen Z — iconic. Which means nothing is iconic. Yes, for exactly 367 years