The text book definition of satire
Literal-users of Facebook may soon get some help when it comes to discerning whether a post is news or satire. Of course, by “help” I mean Facebook is literally going to spell it out.
Facebook is currently running a beta test on some users’ profiles, in which they’ve tagged satirical posts so that users understand the content isn’t real.
Yes, they’ve actually put a “satire” label on them.
While it sounds like a simple enough addition to the news stream, it does beg a few questions — Is it enough and why stop at just labeling satire?
Just think of all the things we could clear up. Labels could range from bragging about my awesome — fill in blank — to food photos, and more. Just think about the possibilities.
No longer will anyone need to be confused by those small little humans or fuzzy non-human photos that keep showing up on their news feed (my baby and my dog/cat are adorable posts — respectively).
And on that note, I’d just like to clear one more thing up:
Satire (noun) — The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
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More on the Story: TIME
…just for fun:
In case there’s still some confusion, here’s another example of satire—