Rash Blogger VS Serious Journalist in the Battle of Happiness
The achievement of happiness is a widely discussed and desirable topic. There are many people, those who feel unhappy, that engage in the pursuit of happiness. Since is this pursuit for happiness exists, many search for the answers online only to run into many self-help articles on the topic. Authors like blogger Debbie Hampton and journalist Jenny Santi are two to contribute to the pursuit, publishing articles that demonstrate methods to be happy. Whereas Debbie fails to create and sustain credible emotional response due to self-centeredness and advertisement of her products, Jenny succeeds by being relatable, professional, and modest. Blogs are a relatively casual medium of …show more content…
Following the topic of the pursuit of happiness, Debbie wrote an article titled “Trying to Make Everyone Happy But Yourself”. In this article, Debbie attempts to create an emotional response by sharing her own personal anecdotes. Within the first sentence, we learn that Debbie is not shy to talk about herself. She mentions she used to try to be a people pleaser, she placed her wellbeing in the hands of others, she neglected herself, she realized her people pleasing tactics were bad. I’d continue talking about Debbie, however, I’d be rewriting the entire article. We sympathize with Debbie, her life stories are touching and unfortunate, but “Trying to Make Everyone Happy But Yourself” is only about Debbie. Such egoism may be expected from a blog post, but not from a blog that is attempting to offer relatable and professional life coaching to the public. Debbie’s article might have succeeded in creating an emotional appeal out off sympathy, but it does not once offer a source of third person to allow the user to relate. No “we as people like to…” or “it is best if we…”, just “I”. Unless you are Debbie, or are very similar to Debbie, you may not connect with this article at all. In total, the article lacks a source of appeal to anyone looking to be happy on a …show more content…
Good news! Debbie Hampton’s book is now on Amazon. If you didn’t know that, there is an ad on the side of blog that no reader can miss due to its large text and colorful picture of the book. The ad sells that Debbie will “tell you all the dirty details of how she got to the point where she tried to commit suicide”, which seems brutally blunt. To describe suicide as a form of “dirty details” gossip juxtaposes the extremely negative connotation of suicide with the pleasure of hearing a secret. Personally, I feel confused and I only respond with repulsion. Whatever sympathy I held for Debbie within the article no longer seems deserving. If she describes her unfortunate past as dirty details, then I don’t believe she is taking herself - or the huge issue of unhappiness - seriously. Due to the fact that Debbie is trying too hard to sell her experiences as some lighthearted joke, she loses whatever credibility and emotional connection she previously established. Unlike blogs, large news outlets have a huge corporate staff. This means there is a ton of production and consideration into each article. Articles found on outlets like Time are way less freeform than any article found on The Best Brain Possible. When journalist Jenny Santi wrote “The Secret to Happiness Is Helping Others”, she probably had a department of interns and editors to help her
The achievement of happiness is a widely discussed and desirable topic. There are many people, those who feel unhappy, that engage in the pursuit of happiness. Since is this pursuit for happiness exists, many search for the answers online only to run into many self-help articles on the topic. Authors like blogger Debbie Hampton and journalist Jenny Santi are two to contribute to the pursuit, publishing articles that demonstrate methods to be happy. Whereas Debbie fails to create and sustain credible emotional response due to self-centeredness and advertisement of her products, Jenny succeeds by being relatable, professional, and modest. Blogs are a relatively casual medium of …show more content…
Following the topic of the pursuit of happiness, Debbie wrote an article titled “Trying to Make Everyone Happy But Yourself”. In this article, Debbie attempts to create an emotional response by sharing her own personal anecdotes. Within the first sentence, we learn that Debbie is not shy to talk about herself. She mentions she used to try to be a people pleaser, she placed her wellbeing in the hands of others, she neglected herself, she realized her people pleasing tactics were bad. I’d continue talking about Debbie, however, I’d be rewriting the entire article. We sympathize with Debbie, her life stories are touching and unfortunate, but “Trying to Make Everyone Happy But Yourself” is only about Debbie. Such egoism may be expected from a blog post, but not from a blog that is attempting to offer relatable and professional life coaching to the public. Debbie’s article might have succeeded in creating an emotional appeal out off sympathy, but it does not once offer a source of third person to allow the user to relate. No “we as people like to…” or “it is best if we…”, just “I”. Unless you are Debbie, or are very similar to Debbie, you may not connect with this article at all. In total, the article lacks a source of appeal to anyone looking to be happy on a …show more content…
Good news! Debbie Hampton’s book is now on Amazon. If you didn’t know that, there is an ad on the side of blog that no reader can miss due to its large text and colorful picture of the book. The ad sells that Debbie will “tell you all the dirty details of how she got to the point where she tried to commit suicide”, which seems brutally blunt. To describe suicide as a form of “dirty details” gossip juxtaposes the extremely negative connotation of suicide with the pleasure of hearing a secret. Personally, I feel confused and I only respond with repulsion. Whatever sympathy I held for Debbie within the article no longer seems deserving. If she describes her unfortunate past as dirty details, then I don’t believe she is taking herself - or the huge issue of unhappiness - seriously. Due to the fact that Debbie is trying too hard to sell her experiences as some lighthearted joke, she loses whatever credibility and emotional connection she previously established. Unlike blogs, large news outlets have a huge corporate staff. This means there is a ton of production and consideration into each article. Articles found on outlets like Time are way less freeform than any article found on The Best Brain Possible. When journalist Jenny Santi wrote “The Secret to Happiness Is Helping Others”, she probably had a department of interns and editors to help her