Image credit: The Cobrasnake

Somewhere between the demise of American Apparel and the unmasking of Gavin McInnes, the Vice co-founder who penned an openly transphobic essay for Thought Catalog last August, an appetite for sincerity and self-improvement has seen irony lose its edge. Last year, Emily Gould, the former gossip columnist credited with inventing Internet snark published a heartfelt memoir about the trials of female friendship. And in what may be an apex of the age of earnestness, The New York Times recently introduced readers to snowga – a dubious hybrid of yoga and snowsport.

– Thrilled to report that I’ll be contributing to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Daily Life fortnightly this year. If you missed it, today’s column is about why we shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate the age of earnestness.