Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 15

= January 15 =

Is this irony?
Having a disagreement with coworkers at the moment. Is the following statement ironic:

"I hate talking on the phone."

if my job consists of me talking on the phone all day? (My hating talking on the phone has nothing to do with my job, I felt this way before the job. It's an antisocial thing.) 74.63.157.73 (talk) 16:40, 15 January 2016 (UTC)


 * "Ironic" is often used simply in place of paradoxal. That's unfortunate, as used in replacement it tends to carry also a notion of punishment. Try to hear it modulated purely factual. --Askedonty (talk) 17:27, 15 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Purely OR, but no, it is not necessarily ironic. I have worked on a queue with incoming calls from clients as soon as the last client has hung up.  That doesn't mean I enjoy "talking on the phone" in the form of 90 minutes of mindless chitchat with acquaintances and relatives, which I hate. μηδείς (talk) 22:36, 15 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I don't think that it ("technically") can be classified as "irony". However, this can be deemed ironic: the fact that you select a job that requires using the phone all day, given that you hate using the phone.  Semantics.  But a subtle difference from the question that you asked.   Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:23, 17 January 2016 (UTC)


 * "Talking on the phone" and "doing business by phone" are two very different things. The statement is only necessarily ironic in the Alanis Morisette sense if you hate using the phone at all. μηδείς (talk) 02:37, 19 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, but doing business by phone also obviously involves talking by phone. Unless, by "talking", one means simply "social conversation" as opposed to the physical act of speaking.   Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:50, 19 January 2016 (UTC)