Exclamation watch
Has anyone else noticed that the gossip blog, Gawker, has convinced itself that exclamation marks are funny? For instance, in this post they use seven exclamation marks:
Grandparents: they hate their grandkids nowadays!
Nobody likes anybody any more!
Which is great for entertainment purposes!
Step one: the news peg. Obama-mom!
It’s true!
Step four: cutesy phrases justify everything!
Oh these modern times!
It’s one of those things that once you notice you can’t unnotice it, like when someone uses “like” all the time, the repetition just, like, grates on you until you’re all like annoyed.
I know what you mean… it reminds me of flipping through the channels and running across that horrible blonde former prosecutor woman on one of the cable networks. Nancy Grace maybe? Not quite sure I even want to know her name, but she always runs headlines that absolutely do NOT justify exclamation points, such as “Britney Spears in legal dispute with agent!” or “Mom of multiples speaks her mind!” or some other trash.
It’s their way of showing off their extra-snarky sarcastic ways. I can totally hear it in their voice, actually, which is pretty effective writing in my mind.
But, of course, snark is supposedly out of style now. Whatever will Gawker do?
!!!
Yes! No more exlamation marks! Heh-heh. It’s easy to do this kind of thing when blogging, especially if you don’t proof before posting.
I find myself over-using a word, or starting too many sentences with “And,” if I don’t proof carefully. Same thing with–dashes–and elipses. . . That said, exlamation point abuse is more tolerable than apostrophe abuse.