"My Bad" - an apology?

[Neto]

Two cases where a neighbor boy has said this to me:

Last Summer or Spring I was in our back yard, and working around a tree stump from a large tree that had fallen in a storm. Just as I stepped out from behind the stump, I looked up and was looking right down an arrow as he drew back. Compound bow. (He had a rather flimsy target in his yard, but right next to the border. I said: Don't be drawing back on me. He said, My bad. I had seen the target there before, and didn't like it right at the edge of our yard, but hadn't seen that he was even outside. And the target was getting pretty shabby by then as well. An arrow might have easily gone right through it, even if he didn't miss it, and hit me in a direct shot. He had obviously not looked over the possible path of the arrow. This is in town, too.)

Last few mornings, one of the boys starts their car from a remote. The radio is blasting away so loud that it not only gets through the car windows, but across a little bit of their yard, across our yard, and through our bedroom windows. Wakes me up, and it's early morning.
They also park the car about as close to our property as is possible, while still staying on their drive. This morning I got up, got dressed and went outside just as they were coming toward the car to leave. (It was still before 7:00 AM.) I said "If you are going to start the car remotely, please make sure the radio is off. He says My Bad, and proceeded to explain that the blu-tooth remote starter turns the radio on as well. I felt like, OK, he's saying it's not his fault. Then afterwards, I feel bad for having said something about it. But it's happened over and over. Usually I'm already up by that time (around 6:30 AM), but if I have lain awake in the early morning, like 3:00 or 5:00 AM, then I sometimes try to get back to sleep again. Then I'm tired all day long, unless I take a nap, in which case I cannot sleep the next night, so starts a vicious cycle.

So I was just curious if this is just the new way of saying, "I apologize". If it is, fine.

[Sudsy]

Do you consider just saying "My bad" as an apology?

(Doesn't feel like one to me, so just wondering what others think.)

I don't. The way I have use it is when I make a mistake and it doesn't have anything to do with apologizing. This may not be how others use the term but that is how I have used it.

An apology, to me, is more a case of doing some personal harm to someone and involves being sorry for what you said or did. I don't use this phrase when I am apologizing but rather would admit I was wrong using a phrase like 'I was wrong to ----'. "My bad" I have used when I admit to making a mistake that doesn't involve harming others, like spilling my coffee.

[Szdfan]

It's taking responsibility, so that is good. It does not indicate sorrow for what one has done, so for something of significance, I find it insufficient.

It's all about context. Works for volleyball games. Not so much for causing real harm.

It feels a bit like someone saying "oops!" which works in some contexts (like sports), but isn't really an adequate apology in other contexts.