Play nicely, now
Hello! So lovely to see you, how’ve you been?
May I say how charming you’re looking today?
What? Of course I’m feeling alright. It’s just that, according to New York writer David Denby, the online community can be pretty unpleasant, and I’m trying to redress the balance.
You see, Denby is the author of a new book about the art of Snark. Snarking (think ‘snide remark’) is the practice of making sarcastic insults and jibes online which are commonly (but not exclusively) directed at celebrities. And it’s something he thinks is spreading through the media and is in danger of taking over the way we communicate with each other.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7941215.stm
It’s not just about being mean, though. Denby believes that a merciless web culture, as promoted by hugely popular gossip sites such as Perez Hilton, TMZ and Gawker, (amongst countless others) is ‘lazy’ and ‘parasitic’ – it’s not just cruel, it’s cheap, and usually not even very amusing. The idea is that anyone can post a bad picture of a celebrity and scrawl something insulting about it. But wit doesn’t come quite so easily (take as an offline example, the Ross / Brand fiasco – personally, I thought they should be ashamed of themselves, not because it’s wrong to make jokes about old men but because the joke just wasn’t funny).
It’s an interesting concept, and one that all web users can relate to – who hasn’t surfed through celeb sites when it’s all a bit quiet in the office, looking for a bit of light relief? While, as Denby reveals, snarking is by no means exclusive to the web (and was around before its creation), the internet has created a super-charged snark culture – insults travel further and faster than ever before, and can be exchanged (but usually can’t be retracted) at the click of a mouse.
But this is the nature of the net, and it’s a wider issue than snark. Just as the internet makes snark more prolific, its inclusivity makes it prone to other digital junk. For instance, the web has made it possible for, theoretically, anyone with a computer to become a blogger – but it doesn’t mean that they have any talent for it. Anyone can set up their own website or video channel – but it won’t necessarily be any good.
But that’s what happens with infinite possibilities. And what can we do about it? Well, nothing – as they say, it’s a free country, and to regulate against activities such as snark would be to compromise our freedom of speech. But perhaps, if you’ve got nothing nice to say, better to say nothing at all...