Snark is so yesterday

April 2, 2013
Kurt Wiesner

The New York Times reports on a return of etiquette by the younger generation sick of snark, irony and rudeness:

Are manners dead? Cellphones, Twitter and Facebook may be killing off the old civilities and good graces, but a new generation of etiquette gurus, good-manner bloggers and self-appointed YouTube arbiters is rising to make old-fashioned protocols relevant to a new generation.

…..

Young people “are getting sick of the irony, rudeness and snark that is so prevalent in their online lives,” said Jane Pratt, the editor in chief of xoJane, a women’s lifestyle site where etiquette posts are a popular feature. “The return of etiquette is in part a response to the harshness of the interactions they are having in the digital sphere.”

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Kurt Wiesner

April 2, 2013 6:16 pm

I’m not sure I would go as far as “a return to etiquette”, but I’m weary of snark.

I like the words I’ve heard spoken (or at least how I heard them) by Canon Charles LaFond:

“Kind and effective, but not nice.”

This fits my understanding of the GenX me: I have little tolerance for the “fakeness” of nice, which I think gives rise to snark.

However, I think kindness is warranted in almost all circumstances. Public snark is not kind.

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