If you’re looking for a blog that will inspire you to use social media effectively, and send you rushing to tweet or post these newfound insights, turn back now . You’ll regret about eighty-percent of the “absolute worst ideas and writing” that you’ve posted to Twitter and Facebook after reading Jay Dolan’s The Anti-Social Media. Seriously, this guy makes you feel bad. Arrogantly coined “the best social media satire on the internet. Ever.”, Dolan’s writing is nothing short of blunt. You may be able to infer this from the blood-soaked stick figure crying, “Muah ha ha ha ha!” that greets you on the homepage, or from the anarchist “A” symbol found in the blog title. If not, it won’t take long to pick up on this author’s voice after reading a few of his posts.
Dolan is a blogger out for vengeance. He’s irritated by the ways in which users have degraded social media into mindless self-promotion tools and ineffective campaign platforms. In a word, he is downright angry. In his recent post, "Trending Topics on Twitter", Dolan makes the sarcastic analogy between hashtags and self-performed brain surgery – “Trending Topics have all the benefits of giving yourself a lobotomy.” This line is bolded to emphasize Dolan’s cynicism, a technique used in all of his posts. Further along, he asks his readers if they, “honestly believe that the people who share trending topics will grasp your weird promoted trend and be able to help you accomplish your business goals?” Rhetorical questions like this also recur throughout the blog, and work as reality checks to skeptic readers, as if saying, “what are you stupid?... of course not!” Thankfully, Dolan injects some comic relief amidst his rants, usually in the form of a satirical doodle beside his words that remind me of Rage Guy. To compliment this, his posts are all short and sweet – he tells you what he doesn’t like and why.
An earlier post titled "SOPA and PIPA Blackouts" further defines Dolan’s cynical yet comedic voice found throughout his blog. He uses concise paragraphs and sentences here to affirm his opinions while still being funny, beginning the post with…
“There are a lot of websites going dark today to protest SOPA an PIPA.
Those websites are stupid.”
Surprisingly, Dolan does not have a foul mouth (or pen in the case). While his posts are devoid of profanity, he does use informal language, calling tweets “lame” and form letters “crappy”. This word choice makes his rants more relatable to readers who share the same basic emotion. Dolan also uses topical references to make connections with his audience, comparing LOL Cats with website blackouts, both as “tragedies we can all suffer through.” He again uses bold to emphasize his irritancy with the general reaction to the blackouts, seemingly screaming at every reader, “Turning off your website, no matter how many hits you get daily, is just a very minor inconvenience.” This is angry Dolan. He then tones it down with this reference to Facebook posts directed at elected officials:
This is funny, satirical Dolan.
Ultimately, the two sides to Dolan’s voice work well together. Readers are able to share in his frustration and anger caused by Social Media misuse - everyone loves a good rant. They are also able to laugh – sometimes at themselves – at how ridiculous these situations are. To me, Dolan’s voice creates a hot/cold effect. His posts get super heated when he is enraged about something, and then cool back down when he makes a joke about it. Overall, it makes for an engaging and enjoyable read.
No comments:
Post a Comment