The Hidden Influence of Social Networks - Essay Example

By talking about how he conducted his study by taking care of the sick and terminally ill patients, Christakis uses the rhetoric proof of Pathos to persuade and inform his audience (TED). His storytelling of how he began to conduct his study evokes emotion among his audience. Christakis employs the rhetoric proof of logos in showing how people become embedded in dense social networks.

He uses slides to present a logical appeal of how clusters develop to form dense social networks. He also employs mathematical reasoning to present data to his audience and thus making a further logical appeal to them. Christakis makes a valid argument on the hidden influence of social networks. He argues that social networks help to define individuals’ health, happiness, and overall life goals. He presents his argument on the basis of scientific research, which he conducted and this makes his argument tick.

He shows how social networks develop and how they get to influence different individuals depending on their location in the network. His exploration of large-scale and face-face social networks is able to show the impacts of social networks on a wide variety of traits such as obesity and happiness on people’s lives (TED). Simply put, he affirms the thought ‘show me you friends, and I will tell you your character’.