One of those ideas that comes up from time to time has done so once again. In this case it's via a Michigan company that's looking to sell a $1.99 application that will install a character one can use as closing punctuation to mark a statement as being sarcastic.
As noted, it's not a new idea. The irony mark, which is a horizontally flipped question mark,؟, goes back to the late 19th century and was intended to mark a statement as one that is to be understood on a second level, including irony and sarcasm.
Much as people use emoticons in casual, written communication to at least give a clue to nuances filtered by a lack of intonation or facial expression, the idea here is to assist in conveying meaning.
While the idea catches my interest, and we've definitely long since moved into an age where the limits of typography are essentially gone (I can easily remember when textbooks with elaborate mathematical expressions were inflated in cost on the basis of such printing elements, back when such had to be physically set) I can't help but see that an alarming percentage of a supposedly educated population doesn't know how to properly use the standard punctuation marks. The misuse and overuse of such a thing would be almost immediate were there any wide adoption of it.
Yeah... I don't need to see line after line of inane commentary appended with such a mark as if to infuse it with meaning, much less the appearance of "That's what she said؟" or the Sarcasm, Inc. equivalent.
Anyway, as someone who doesn't own an iPhone, blackberry or the like and so hasn't become casually used to buying apps, I'm not interested in paying $1.99 for a new shot at an old idea. I will be watching to see if this manages to gain any traction, though.
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But I do see your point, and it's a good one.
If the sarcastic or ironic emphasis is on a word or phrase most of us generally have to trust to the reader to catch it or we might emphasize it by putting that section in italics, something that modern, thumbs-a-blazin' text messagers aren't likely to do. So, if they've felt the lack they may be drawn to a simple symbol. My expectation is that they already feel reasonably covered by appending an ;) rather than ending a line with what may look like a slightly odd @ and leave those with sharper eyes wondering if it's supposed to represent a tadpole.
In a post-typeset, hand-held message device and Twitter age, it's possible that the time for this sort of thing may have come around at last. The uphill slog of explaining what it means to newcomers in that same, abbreviated text format is a big first barrier to it. Well -- after the question of whether or not enough people find themselves in search of the nuance.
My expectation is that it's most likely to either be ignored almost completely or quickly be mis-used to death.
Two barriers to adoption (aside from the above mentioned question of whether or not there's much of a need for it) are:
1. I believe the $1.99 price point is too high. This really couldn't have taken much work, so unless the way they're selling it sees a great deal of the money being leached away by costs they'd be much better off knocking it down to a far more casual 99 cents. Then again, considering what people apparently shell out at Starbucks... maybe $1.99 IS casual, throwaway cash these days. I can only say that it's more than I'm willing to spend for it.
2. It won't get far so long as it's privately owned. Punctuation has to be public domain or else these guys will have to spend most of their time exercising due diligence as people start to use it in articles, blogs, etc. to keep it from becoming public domain by default.