Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

by Gretchen McCulloch

In a world where, to use the expression of technologist Jenny Sundén, you’re writing yourself into existence, how you write is who you are.

Irony is a linguistic trust fall. When I write or speak with a double meaning, I fall backwards, hoping that you’ll be there to catch me. The risks are high: misaimed irony can gravely injure the conversation. But the rewards are high, too: the sublime joy of feeling purely understood, the comfort of knowing someone’s on your side. No wonder people through the ages kept trying so hard to write it.