Traveling the Too-Much-Information Highway (Essay Sample)

Traveling the Too-Much-Information Highway
Student Name
Institution
The article "Traveling the Too-Much-Information Highway" by Heather L. Hunter was first published on November 14, 2004 on The New York Times. In this article, Hunter aims to convince her readers that bloggers must limit their relationship information while blogging. The blogger says that she "have learned the hard way that there can be such a thing as too much information." (Hunter, 2004) She continues to describe how she learns her lesson after she meets and falls in love with her fellow blogger she refers to as the Musician. Personal anecdotes contrast and comparison are the techniques Heather L. Hunter skilfully uses to create a strong convincing article.
Personal anecdote is a short account of an event or incident especially of an entertaining or amusing nature (Literary Devices and Literary Terms). In the article, Hunter starts by giving a personal anecdote of her hobby as blogger. She describes herself and the nature of her blog. She says that she is a blogger and an emotional exhibitionist who make her dear daily diary entries available for the online audiences. She started to write her blog to "to vent about a particularly difficult relationship" (Hunter, 2004). The technique establishes the article as a personal or informal. Personal or informal articles and essays are the best way to establish and capture the interests of the readers. In addition, this anecdote is biographical in nature since it is used to provide background information, for instance, Hunter says "My story begins in the fall of 2003, when I met the Musician — or, I should say, I met his blog" (Hunter, 2004). Her encounter with the Musician and her sharing of too much information is the key motive for writing this article. In another anecdote, the author shows how she had told the musician her personal information while she knew just the general information about the Musician. She says "Long before we met in person, he knew about my compulsive housecleaning, trust issues and addiction to Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. In turn, I knew about his fears of flying and commitment, and his grand passion for aviator sunglasses" (Hunter, 2004). Such anecdotes are interesting, and entertainment and tend to lighten the mood of the article. Consequently, it is relatively easy for the audience to relate to his or her personal experiences. The main purpose of the anecdotes in this article is to support and substantiate the main ideas. The author successfully use the anecdotes to relate her personal feelings and their origin by stating that there exists "a thing as too much information" (Hunter, 2004).
After skilfully capturing the readers’ attention and interests in her introductory anecdote, Hunter starts using contrast. She skilfully uses contrast to portray her personal life presented in blogging and the blogging practices of her fellow bloggers including the Musician. Numerous instances of contrast throughout the article portray the difference between different bloggers and how they react to information they get about other people. Mainly the author describes the difference between her and the Musician. She writes "But unlike me, the Musician rarely wrote about his dating habits" (Hunter, 2004). She had been actively writing about her relationship with the Musician, and she says that her romance activities "became an intriguing addition to my blog" (Hunter, 2004). She, through contrast, notices how the Musician never wrote anything about their relationship in his web logs, a fact that made her ignorant of other women in his life. The discovery of the Musician’s "Young Photographer's blog" (Hunter, 2004) make the Author develop a contrast between herself and women the Musician preferred.
Hunter also contrast her previous love encounters with the Musician and the love after she discovered the "Young Photographer's blog”. She realises that her love had changed. It was unlike the lively relationship she wrote about in her web logs. It was a dull one where the Musician never held her hand while closing the street. Finally, the author shows the difference between her and a blogger who had sent her an anonymous email calling her "calling me out as "nothing more than the Musician's groupie,"" (Hunter, 2004). She, unlike the anonymous person, she never sent an unidentified email to the owner of the "Young Photographer's blog”. Her ability to contain her feelings made all the difference. In this article, Hunter uses contrast to bring out the characteristics of different bloggers and how they handle their information they want to write in their blogs or the information they get from reading others blogs. The contrasts also function to support points Hunter makes later regarding the similarities between bloggers and the danger of providing out too much information.
In the course of contrasting the blogging behaviours of different people with hers, the author cannot help but compare herself with others. In fact, in comparing herself with others is when she realises the contrasts. She like the Musician is bloggers. She even met him in his blogging. She says, "I met the Musician — or, I should say, I met his blog" (Hunter, 2004). This shows that they are both bloggers. In addition, the author, the owner of the blogger "Young Photographer's blog" and the person who sent the author an anonymous email are all bloggers. The comparisons make the reader reflect on the main ideas of the article. Through effective comparison, Hunter leads the readers to conclude logically that it is the amount of information that we give to others that create the contrast. Through com...