Snark and me
I really like when someone gives me feedback on my blog. This is an odd feeling for me because I have a tendency to minimize things like praise. It's my ambivalence issue; I own it.
Part of my personality is a little like Stuart Smalley, who I hope I can reference with out paying a royalty. Stuart Smalley is a character of Al Franken's creation who wrote a book called I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley.
On the other hand, my personality tends toward snarky. I'm a sarcastic person who grew up in the North East of the good ole US of A. While sarcasm comes easy to me and can be entertaining to some people, sarcasm has also caused the occasional mis-understanding. I have a tendency to think everyone can handle this type of sharp dialog and wants to engage in the same kind of banter that I like.
When someone praises my blog (feels good) but they praise the snark within the blog, I'm not quite sure how to react. I think they think the snark is funny or, at least, more honest. It is entertaining, I hope. It does reflect a bit more of my inner dialog. But I feel some measure of caution is needed with snark. Overly snarky is divisive, off-putting.
I don't have a PollyAnna attitude of "can't we all get along" but neither do I want to unnecessarily offend someone. Dialog is good. Sometimes it isn't pretty, but it's easy to shut down somebody (stopping the dialog) if you get all snarky.
Aiming for some balance here, is all.
