I’ve been under the misguided presumption that the word “snarky” has always represented statements that may occur if cynicism and sarcasm were to get together and have a cute little snarky baby. I say cute because my brand of sarcasm generally isn’t rooted in cruelty, and my cynicism (though admittedly rampant) generally isn’t founded in hate. I guess I’ve sort of seen “snarky” as a cute little tongue-in-cheek positive wearing sparkly cute horns.
I’m wrong, as it turns out.
Originally, it was British slang in relation to being “testy or irritable”. Since then it’s meaning has broadened to include that which I’ve thought…something along the lines of “sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner”…but really, not so cute. And no sparkle on the horns, I may add.
I used to find those who were bitingly clever and so quick with their cut throat sarcasm endlessly entertaining. Still, I do think that the most hilarious of humans are those who possess a slightly off kilter take on things and who can effortlessly interject their immediate wit into just about any conversation. What troubles me slightly is the turn that the snarkiness has taken. In truth, it’s probably reverting back to its original meaning and then some.
Anyone else notice that those who used to be just sarcastic are now sort of just A-holes?
(I couldn’t find a nicer word that was fitting.)
Really, I first noticed it with my favorite blogger. She’s the wife of a former pastor of my church and I’ve followed her and her playful stories and womp womp-ness of motherhood for years now. She’s always been hilarious. She’s always had a bit of an ironic sense of humor. She’s always been sarcastic. But now…
That humor is mostly gone, and that irony is no longer founded in the jovial, and that sarcasm isn’t just snarky, and it’s more than just cynical, and honestly I’m pretty sure it’s just downright mean.
And that got me noticing others out there. Friends, husbands of friends, guests at restaurants we may or may not work at…they’re all getting so mean.
Again, “mean” doesn’t really encompass the full nastiness (and neither does “nasty”) of these people. It’s really starting to bum me out that we’ve all collectively, it would seem, abandoned the use of sarcasm as an expression of humor and segued into using it as thinly veiled cruelty. Very, very, very, thinly veiled.
I’ve really been trying to examine what comes out of my mouth these days in terms of sarcasm and snarkiness, and look at where the root of it is. Unfortunately, we’re in the retrospective phase of examination, but I do hope to progress to the pre-screening stage in the not so distant future. In my case, regardless of how it may have been perceived in the past, my sarcasm has seldom if ever been motivated by cruelty. I’ve come to the conclusion that cynical sarcasm, when it involves commentary on others, is the stepping stone to becoming an A-hole.
Yes, my favorite blogger is no longer funny. She’s actually become kind of a nasty and mean individual, at least in that which she publicized about anyone other than herself…which is, as I’ve above stated, a bummer. Sadly, she’s hardly the only one.
Here’s where the thesis of this installment comes in: I think that the combination of a descending quality of sarcasm, a ton of really offended people, and the veils of our computer screens are slowly turning us into creatures incapable of human-to-human kindness.
Between Twitter, and Facebook, and our blogs and whatever else we have to hide behind on our laptops, we’re not interacting with real people on a real level. We’re making snap “likes” and trivial flippant comments here and there. We’re judging EVERYTHING about everyone (Oh, I’m SO guilty of this myself. Don’t get me started on the odd fascinator-esque headpieces grown women are wearing…I don’t get it.) and what once was probably kept to ourselves is now becoming open season for mockery and…snarkiness. We’re de-humanizing the humans in our lives. We digitalize something and all of a sudden it’s ok to be a jerk. Again…I don’t get it.
This has become more and more apparent to me now that I’ve re-entered the workforce. It’s been years since I was in restaurants, and given my family and relationship requirements, it made more sense to go back to serving than it did to a nine-to-five desk job. In those years, though, I’m a bit sad to notice that people seem to have declined a bit in the people skills department. But it’s not just there – it’s everywhere.
Look on the news. Look in the comments section on any given article, on just about any publication. Look at the trending topics on Twitter (no, don’t). People just don’t know how, or maybe they just refuse to be nice. Maybe we all need to unplug a bit, or just tone it down a tad. But jeez, people. Where’s the kindness?
And where is my cute sparkly horned snark?!
Oh yeah:
Snark:
noun
a mysterious, imaginary animal.
I completely agree, and I think a lot of it is also stemming from the sense of entitlement that has become so rampant. It’s the age of instant gratification. A lot of the a-holes of which you speak have been handed everything their whole life. Back in the day, they’d be gracious and appreciative. Now they’ll take to the internet and whine impotently about how nothing lives up to their unreasonable expectations. The internet has just made it easier to inject a heaping dose of vitriol into an increasingly hostile environment.
So true! It is sad how our minimum requirements for satisfaction are getting astronomically high, and I absolutely agree that it’s contributing to a buch of rampant self-entitlement. I’m staring to thing we’re getting to an irreparable state of being permanently bitter and unimpressed.