Be Careful What You Wish For…
…such as a font or other tag to distinguish sarcasm in text. Seems to be what everyone’s been clamoring for, but as Facebook toys with yet another update, reactions are mixed. Executives at Facebook have received a significant volume of commentary from users who have seen a “news” headline on their News Feed or Timeline and presumed it to be real. The Onion, one of the most notorious satirical news sources, has been the cause of many of these occasions; as a response, Facebook plans to tag all posts from The Onion and related sources with a visible “Satire” label. This comes with two possible reasons for backlash:
- The removal of the humor factor. Part of what makes satire funny is the step the intelligent brain must take to discover it—just like when someone explains a pun or riddle, it loses its edge.
- The “dumbing down” and removal of any human responsibility…who is Facebook to intervene when a user is not smart enough to know if something they see on News Feed is legitimate? Or for that matter, anywhere on the internet? (Weren’t we taught to take everything on the internet with a grain of salt when it first came out in the 1990s?)
However, this tag could also potentially solve confusion and make joking with friends online easier and more comfortable. What do you think of the idea?
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Article by: Elizabeth Potash > Twitter
