By Michael Haas
Oh, no. Sarcasm isn't a dying art or anything.
"Man is the only animal who laughs," noted the French philosopher Henri Bergson. But Henri wasn't around to see the day when much of our communication is filtered though machines. As a result, a main pillar of humor - sarcasm - suffers.
Simple text captures the phrasing or the tone of voice of a sarcastic comment really well. Imagine a conversation between Kent Hrbek and Dan Gladden:
Gladden: Did you pull Gant off the bag?
Hrbek: Yeah, he should have been safe.
Is Herbie being sarcastic? One cannot tell by just reading the text. Luckily, back in 1991, they did not have text messaging or email, so that exchange could only happen verbally. (btw, Hrbek was being sarcastic)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, "Sarcasm is the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded." And he's right. How often have you seen a James Bond or some other duder being interrogated, beaten up in a chair, asked if they want more beating, and they come back with a sarcastic way of saying, "No, but I'm still not telling where the microchip is, and it doesn't look like I have much of a choice anyway."
The spy (or the dude - 'it's down there somewhere, i'd better take another look') would have no 'last refuge' if they were forced to filter their sass through a computer:
evil mastermind: are you ready to tell me now or do you want another?
hero: lol. 4 sure. jk! :(
By the time the average American is 20, they will have used a text message, email, or instant message a whopping 40% of communique. With heavier use of electronic forms of communication by our young people, that figure isn't growing or anything. Soon we will have teenagers who won't be sarcastic. That'll be terrible.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sarcasm Suffering in Modern World
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15 comments:
Haas, I would appreciate it if you would cite your sources. Where did you get that by the time one is 20 they communicate through electronic means 45% of the time?
We have standards here. Come on Haas, meet them.
edited to 40%. see accompanying graphic.
whats worse than the loss of sarcasm is the rediculous overuse of lol.
I'm really bothered when I talk to girls on AIM, and they use lol in every single sentence, or for almost every response to something you type, regardless of whether its funny or not. (not all girls do this, just some)
yea. its pretty interesting. i'm sure that they are not actually laughing out loud every time they type that. it's like a way of sounding happy or bubbly or not too serious. probably a force of habit for many.
personally, i use the 'haha'
I assume those that use lol too much dont know what it stands for and just use it because they've seen others use it at "bubbly" points in the convo.
I agree with citing sources. Pulling random facts and figures doesn't adhere to AH! high standard of journalistic integrity.
as for "lol" the real problem is people say "lol" when they don't know what to say. And when they are actually laughing out loud they type "I am actually laughing out loud right now" which really defeats the purpose of the abbreviation.
I prefer "haha" or in some cases "ha" to show a sarcastic fake laugh. But as your nice post points out, the sarcasm is often lost.
Example, from not more than a few minutes ago. I sent out an email to a team I am working on letting them know that I am available if they needed any help. At the end of the email I wrote, I am willing to help anyone except (insert friendly co-workers name). Thinking this was obviously a sarcastic remark, I received a few emails asking why I didn't like that person and why i was not willing to help them.
i usually just type buwahahahaha or hahaha if i actually laugh out loud. It's goot be more than two ha's to shown signs of real laughter.
internet conversations is dumbifying humans alot worse than television.
Haas, you’re just jealous cuz I chat with babes online all day.
When you use email or text when talking to babes you don’t have to worry about being witty or charming. You can sit back and type something that is well thought out. When I actually verbally talk to a girl it usually goes something like this: “hey…hi..ah…sup…cool…ah,” and then I get nervous and blurt out something like, “I want to hug you naked!” It generally goes sour from there.
If kids didn’t communicate primarily through computers we would never have terrific television shows like “To Catch a Preditor.”
LOL! (thats for your comment soup)
it took you a lot of words to tell us that kids use electronic devices to communicate. also, I believe that we were the beginning of this electronic communication frenzy. I dont know of many people older than us that use their AIM names, or constantly text. it all started with us, and we must end it.
(but its so fun)
are you being sarcastic about 'journalistic integrity' i can't tell.
and i'm not sure what holmer is talking about. The piece isn't about how 'kids use electronic devices to communicate' The headline and content of the story should point to what its about.
i should have made the whole post more sarcastic. and i should have made a contest challenging the readers to pick out the sarcastic sentences.
and as we all bitch about the current state of communication, let me just say that i don't think this thing that we started needs to be stopped. i sarcastically pointed this out in the last sentence of the post.
I'm just saying that we are somewhat apart of the "kids these days" in regards to this topic. have we lost our sarcasm?
Question... does anyone remember the AIM name list I made in HS. Where I had over 800 AOL names, but we had to shut it down because some girl started stalking people on AOL??? does anyone remember who she was?
probably Evelyn Christiansen
ha! crazy evelyn christiansen. what a strange person.
I remember that site what was it called again? like tech hill or something
i feel like it was someone in our grade, it was katie somehting... yeah tech hill was something I can't remember.
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