"Literally Sarcastic" Voice

Voice is one of the greatest gifts god has given us. Conveying a clear sense of you verbally is a tough feat for basically most of the population, but there are the few unique ones who can portray their own voice through written words quite well. One of the few unique voices I have stumbled upon writes a blog called Literally- Sarcastic: A terrible awful blog. The title itself lets grabs us, having us ponder over what kind of topics this blog will touch upon. After reading two of her posts, I am assuming the blogger is a she from what I have read, I have found her voice to be a breathe of fresh air. I would describe this blogger to be similar to Chelsea Lately. They both add a sarcastic twist on their topics, but in a compelling way because there is a light, happy funny aspect present. The pictures she draws to accompany her blogs are the icing to her blunt sarcastic humorous personality.

The first blog post I read of hers is titled “Bras fo’ Lyfe”.  She talks about how her boyfriend “despises” sponges to immediately comparing him to a sponge. The fact her boyfriend, in her words, “absorbs everything around him and repeats it back until it dies a slow death.” This simple sentence portrays her annoyance with her boyfriend and this little habit of his. She is blunt yet comical in that sentence. When she describes how he kills phrases, songs, and slang by repeating them over and over, she is not shying from hurting his feelings yet saying they suffer from a slow death is hilarious to think about. Just imagine a favorite song of yours dying slowly, there are so many crazy images that can surface. The post goes on to describe how she definitely despises when him and his brother are together because they have this unique language of “1337 internet/World of Warcraft Ling, abbreviations, Scrub quotes, disfigured versions of previously overused vocabulary”.  Hello sarcasm! She gives an example of the word BRO as becoming an example of disfigured versions to go on and say how its basically just so dumb why people even use it. The blog post ends with her saying “anyways.. What I am trying to say is that I cant help but get hilarious mental images from their conversations”, with a drawing she made of the two and their “language” written above them. Ending the blog in this manner conveys her ability to switch her tone of voice easily between sarcasm and comedic.

The second blog post I read conveys the more sarcastic side of her voice with her comical side appearing more in her drawings. The blog post is titled “21^st Birthday” and begins with her saying how its her 21^st birthday today and underneath is a drawing of her all happy. Next comes the obvious question of “Guess what I’m going to do tonight?” with a girl drunk below. But sadly since she is unique and unlike everyone, she is going to be sitting outside in the cold waiting to pick up her pre-ordered World of Warcraft game. Since she is aware that people reading her blog are going to judge her, because that’s what we do, her sarcastic tone comes alive in the rest of the blog. For example in this sentence, “ Because I am that cool. I am hip. I am with it. I socialize with real people. Outdoors”. Deep down she knows people are going to judge this action as being lame, that’s what we do when someone goes against the norm. This blogger though defends herself by being sarcastic with this statement which allows her to be able to say “I don’t care” kind of attitude.

Profile Post

Trying to find people with my similar interest for a blog was at least, in my opinion quite difficult but I succeeded! Nicole Ellison I have discovered has interests similar to mine. Her blog is "devoted to the study of social impacts of new communications technologies. And a few other things". She comments on their role in society both good and bad and writes her own opinions about each article. Sadly though she has stopped blogging in 2009 but her site has kept an audience and her links have been extremely helpful with discovering new information I can use in my blog.

For instance one of her posts is titled “Media Coverage of New Technologies: Some thoughts on the Facebook and Jealousy Study”. She writes how the articles that are mostly chosen by the press are articles, which show the negative aspects of technology. This one in particular is about how Facebook now can ruin a relationship by creating jealous behavior. Nicole – giving her own opinion—says this isn’t true. People use Facebook basically as a way to give into their own jealousy ways by stalking their loved ones Facebook page. Facebook has created an avenue for people who are prone to having these bad tendencies to give into them and not feel like a creepy stalker. The other post I thought was really interesting is titled “ Freakonomics on the Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Network Sites”. The original article argues whether or not social network systems can have a positive and negative aspect on society. Nicole read many responses and blogged about what the majority was saying. Their response was how it just depends on how the person uses it. The other point the article makes is how Facebook will probably devalue the meaning of “friend”. How a person can now simply click a button to establish a “friendships”. However, Nicole says that it has become a great way for students who are about to enter into college to meet their future roommate or even future classmates.

 My blog though will be different because mine is not going to focus solely on Facebook but on all different technological ways relationships are endangered and affect a relationship. I plan on focusing on the negative outcomes, which have happened because of technology. I am going to include Twitter, Cellphones, MySpace, Facebook, 4 Square, etc. I want my audience to come with an open mind about this topic though and be able to state how they feel and be able to have the ability to disagree with me. That’s why I chose Nicole’s Blog, she has great topics, she states her own opinion about the issue and presents both a positive point and negative point on issues. Her blog is a space for learning and for an audience to take what she is saying and marinate on what they believe is right. I hope my blog will have that aspect for people to feel able to have their own opinion even after reading what I have to say.

Hello World!

“Omg did you see what that dumb girl wrote on my boyfriends wall!” to “ But they are facebook official, that means something” to “ Why is this guy sending you these naked photos?” Statements like these have grown to become word vomit in our society. Technology is drastically changing the way we behave in every kind of relationship and this change is not for the better. Girls complain constantly about how guys are rude, incompetent, selfish, little shits. Excuse my language for the last part. While at the same time guys are constantly saying how girls are clingy, psychotic, emotional messes who come with extra baggage they do not want to deal with. All this complaining and whining has in my own opinion evolved because of the effects technology, the two major ones being Facebook and cellular phones., have had on relationships. This new trend of being socially connected by the internet and cell phones allow for people to tell their whole life story in an easily accessible place for the world to see and sadly has created a tornado of chaos where lying cheating and manipulation dominate. I know so many people whose relationships have fallen apart because they read to much into lets say a Facebook comment they saw on their boyfriend/girlfriends wall, or from seeing a picture of their boyfriend/girlfriend posing to close with someone else. These images and words which would not have been seen if it was not for Facebook tend to transform into unwanted thoughts of what their boyfriend/girlfriend might be doing behind their back when in reality nothing happened. Same with a cell phone, guys/ girls now secretly search each others text messages to see if they can catch one another cheating, “sexting” someone else, acting inappropriately, etc. The best cell phone story I have heard is when my friend one day was telling me how she doesn’t understand what she did to have such an honest faithful boyfriend. Two weeks later, my friend is crying her eyes out telling me she found her boyfriends second cell phone in his boxer drawer filled with text messages, calls, and photos of this other woman. And with all of this said, I am not saying I don’t do the same thing, I am human I cant help it. However, after a failed relationship because I secretly read text messages on my boyfriends phone, and of course read to much into them, I ruined what we had over nothing. I was so embarrassed about what I did that I actually confessed to him later. After that experience, I became aware of how much technology influenced my emotions and actions. So here I am, writing this blog to try and inform people about what I have learned. To share stories I know where relationships have failed due to technology and point out the places where a person has let Facebook or a cell phone take over their clear-minded head.