In EC chatroom, I see many members with great sense of humor and sometimes sense of sarcasm. Today, something comes to my mind so that I feel want to know more about sarcasm. After a short tour around Goolge, I’m surprised with many articles about Sarcasm and its important role in our modern life.
Sarcasm involves a composer saying something that is the opposite of what they really mean.
For example:
“I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.”
“If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.”
I read that children can understand and use sarcasm by the time they get to kinderdarten. Supprised? I see in EC main room, many don’t even understand sarcasm or sometimes misunderstand it as criticism.
So I think that sarcasm is practically considered the primary language in modern society dripping with irony. Everything has 2 sides, so either does sarcasm.
The advantages are:
Sarcasm seems to excercise brain more than sincere statements do
Sarcasm stimulates brain to do more complex thinking
Sarcasm may be a gentler way to critise with indirectness and humour
And the disadvantages:
The mocking, smug, superior nature of sarcasm is perceived as more hurtful
than a plain-spoken criticism.
The Greek root for sarcasm, sarkazein, means to tear fesh like dogs.
So we should be careful to use sarcasm in right situations and with right people.
I even find the instruction how to use sarcasm and how to response to it. It’s really interesting to read even though I don’t think I can become good at sarcasm.
Below are some links I found:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-of-sarcasm-yeah-right-25038/?no-ist
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