Old Habits Die Hard
Sarcasm, everyone’s problem child
SCIENTISTS ARE A BUSY BUNCH. They make it their business to read into everything and then tell you what and what not to eat. Superfoods? Are we better off without caffeine, fat or sugar? They’re meddling with our lives yet again by teaching computers to recognise sarcasm. Picture this: your friend tries to sound smart about something on Facebook, you give your two cents’ worth, and voila, the computer will help them read between the lines. Because how people express themselves is so individualistic, I can only imagine that something casual could be construed as snarky. Typos? I shudder to think. It gets tougher if the friend is female, because well, society has put a lot on women’s plates to begin with. But back to sarcasm. Who wants to know what people really think all the time? Even Mel Gibson’s character in the comedy What Women Want found it a curse instead of a blessing. Apparently there is demand for a sarcasm detector. An algorithm created by professors David Bamman and Noah Smith can detect sarcasm from keywords such as “gasp” and “clearly”. Factors like age, gender and chat history are taken into consideration, and it’s interesting how their tests found that men from the USA are a sarcastic bunch. I can’t help thinking that such technical capabilities could be better used to build better lie detectors to help the process of justice. Judging from the explosive way people react to everything on Facebook, why scientists see the need to stir up more trouble is beyond me. Then again, while it’s best people figure things out on their own, sarcasm detectors can be useful for the naive. I suppose it could also be a boon for people who aren’t aware when they’ve made a cutting remark. This is something I’m guilty of, as I have discovered recently. As it happened, I had said something that hurt a close friend, and it snowballed into an explosive argument. I knew there and then that something had to change. Whatever I had thought was harmless, gentle ribbing came across a little nasty. Boy, did I need a filter. The other trouble is, I’ve also made scathing comments for years without a second thought. It was kind of like a knife I’d been honing over time and had got too used to wielding. Ouch. The old wise folks are probably right when they tell us to take everything with a pinch of salt. So where do we draw the line and not go overboard with sarcasm? I guess a good way is to always consider the possible and likely intentions of the other party. Is it deliberate or malicious? Is he or she out to hurt or cause embarrassment? I’ve been told sarcasm is hostility disguised as humour. Whatever the case, like a potent spice, it should only be used sparingly, whether for fun or on someone who actually deserves it.