Snarky Comment
A while back, I wrote a post about liking things and that it's okay to do so. One of the things it made me think about though was snarkiness.
dis my snob face
Snark is a default response in a lot of online and offline life. Instantly slag something off and - tada! - you have a foolproof defense mechanism to protect that delicate little core of yours.
Snark is different from wit - or it could bi considered a subcategory, I suppose. Snark gets a laugh, but its always always at the expense of something or someone else. And it takes no effort or any risk to be snarky, unlike the creation/person/whatever that is being lampooned.
This reaction is often either a) a response to something genuine that makes people uncomfortable because artificiality is a lot easier to deal with or b) as a way to cope with personal feelings if inadequacy.
I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. Someone gets a role I wanted or performs in something spectacular and is just a liiiiitle too close to my age and type and suddenly I say really mean-spirited stuff that I would not say otherwise.
Why is that? I dunno, I'll leave that for the philosophers. Or psychologists. Or therapists.
It's just something that was brought to my attention and has started to get on my nerves. It's just so easy to be snarky and write things off in a comically dismissive way. Nuanced opinions take time and reveal personal neuroses (or even more damning, preferences *gasp*!) that would've otherwise remained hidden.
All excessive snarkiness reveals is that you're either insecure or an asshole (who is probably an asshole because you're insecure). I am not writing off the delightful pastime of making fun of, say, bad movies - come on, I'm not that much of a goody goody. It's the kneejerk reaction to slag things off that I don't like.
It's a defense mechanism and a bad one.
Stop it.