"WTF should be an emotion. There isn't yet a single word for the sense of seeing something that totally boggles the mind; it's related to confusion, but not the same thing. Confusion is aversive, while WTF leads to LOLs and a state of blissful unawareness of what's going on. It's more like confusion feeding into a jolt of happy surprise."
The entire post can be found here:
http://phronko.blogspot.com/2009/07/emotion-of-wtf.html
I read Phronk's stuff alot and today he just hit on something that I hadn't thought of before. He is right that like 'Schadenfreude'(which we know is the German term for the joy we take in the failure of others) there is no word beside the letters WTF to express the kind of bewilderment that accompanies the strange things we see online. Even on 'Countdown with Keith Oberman' he has a segment called the "WTF Moment of the Day'. He saves it for the most egregious examples of stupidity that comes out of the halls of power in Washington D.C. There is no mistaking what those letters stand for and they actually allow us to use the word 'fuck' in a way that is safe for work or in the company of children. Just saying 'WHAT?' is too soft and not strong enough for the emotions that 'WTF' elicits. 'WTF' is perfect for that purpose and we all recognize the sentiment it is expressing. Thanks again to brother Phronk (who studies psychology) for getting my head to spin again with his on target insight. You really need to read his battle against religious bigots and how he totally annihilated their arguments. Its so good that I am going to find the post I wrote about that incident so that any others with open minds can enjoy. Follow this link to find my post and from there enjoy the beauty of the debate.
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2009/04/good-on-you-pronk.html
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4 comments:
WTF is one of those phrases that just speaks for itself..
To make is safer for my kids, we took to WTF? meaning "What the FLOOP?"
heh!
Thanks again for this!
I think some of the more specific emotions, like schadenfreude, and if you believe us, WTF, show that human emotional experience is much more complex than just basic happiness, sadness, surprise, etc. Nice to know that people can relate to them, even if there is no single word.
Wing: I love that you use FLOOP for the bad F word. I use Frick and the Battlestar Galactica TV show uses Frak. So anyone who claims that we need to use F*** to express that state of bewilderment or frustration is just not being creative enough.
I totally agree with you Pronk. Its like Inuit culture that has 20different words for snow depending on what type of snow conditions exist. Our own 'emotional experience' as you call it can be interpreted many ways. The need for the human brain to classify everything creates a need for the right word for the right file in our minds.
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