Irony Mark
One of the things about any type of online communication is the difficulty of imparting tone to your written words. If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m a very sarcastic, cynical person (not saying that’s a good or bad thing, just fact). The problem is that when you make a sarcastic comment online, the only people that get it are those who know you well (in person). People who you’ve only interacted online with usually don’t catch subtle differences in your speech to understand you’re making a joke.
The Irony Mark (according to wiki) was invented in the 19th century by French poet Alcanter de Brahm to indicate alternate meaning, i.e. sarcasm, irony, etc. It’s a backwards question mark (looks like this ؟)placed at the end of the sentence which has the double meaning.
I don’t understand how this hasn’t become mainstream. The online world is crying out for a way to easily distinguish things with double-meaning. “Wow, Carl. That’s a great haircut؟” or ”Great job on that presentation today, Steve؟“ Said without the irony mark, these sentences are complimentary, totally missing the sarcasm.
I think I will start using the irony mark, and I encourage you to do the same. When I make fun of someone or something online, I want them to know it. Until then, I’ll just have to keep explaining myself to all the geniuses I meet online؟
See what I did there?
