Re:literal avalanche of pornography (Score 4, Interesting)

when i wrote that line i debated whether or not people would nitpick the use of the word "literal." i decided to use it since i was writing a semi-comedic piece and i thought that the ironic use of the word there might be funny. my fear was that people might not realize i was using the word ironically and would call me out on it. it's probably weak writing on my part that didn't make the comedic overtones of that paragraph more obvious.

i've been reading more and more screeds against people using the word "literally" in situations when they actually mean "figuratively." i think what's happened is that people started using the word "literally" as a way to ironically create hyperbole (i'm so hungry, i could literally eat a million pounds of pizza). it became a popular way to create hyperbole but since it's devilishly difficult to communicate irony through text a lot of uninformed readers began to infer that "literally" actually meant "figuratively." the result of this is that there are now approximately eleven million blogs out there using the word "literally" incorrectly (and unironically).

(this is probably as good as time as ever to say that my own little grammar nitpick is when people use the word "ironic" to mean "coincidental." it drives me crazy. but it's likely that in a generation or two the words will be synonymous. today's mistakes are tomorrow's rules, as they say...)

all this being said, i'm enough of a geek to be honored that something i wrote has been nitpicked on slashdot.

now, if you'll excuse me, i literally have a million things to do today...

all the best,

--jayblack