Rhetorical analysis of Just between You, Me and My 622, BFFS - Essay Example

Rhetorical analysis of Just between You, Me and My 622, BFFS Thesis ment Orenstein employs a realistic tone and relies on her own credibility as a writer as well as external sources to talk about the involvement of parents and teenagers in social media which is resulting in closing of the self, identity and girls becoming strange to their erotic feelings because of the social media. Body paragraphs At the beginning of the essay, the writer Peggy Orenstein presents a story, which deals with the theme of the involvement of social media in the lives of the people, especially in the lives of teenage girls. She writes, “Erin Who Is Fourteen since she was in third grade”. I used to love doing the painting pages on the Dragon Tales site,” she said, laughing, “I did them until I was much too old”. “Erin and three of her friends were sitting in her family’s Albany” (Orenstein 446). To begin the essay with a story seems to be fallacious because it makes the whole essay more like a story than an academic essay. It is a fallacy of appealing to emotion. Why the beginning of the essay with a story seems to be fallacious is that the story does not seem to fulfill its purpose of attracting the audience towards it. The story makes the meaning of the story vague and makes it difficult go through the article smoothly. Moreover, the story in the essay is not consistently used from the beginning to the end, which makes the article difficult to read. However, her audience is educated which is why the beginning of the article with a story does not make much difference to them. The story is told to fit her argument that the access of Internet to the teenage girls is resulting in destructive to their lives, especially in their erotic feelings. However, the story exposes the consequences of the social media by teenager. The writer does not only trust her experience as a writer to convince the audiences but also uses external sources to increase the credibility of her argument. She refers to external sources after her statements. In other words for the sake of credibility she is extrinsic in her articulation of ethos – this seems to be ethos of credibility. The author seems to have a wide range research or to read on the topic, which is evident in her giving references to extrinsic sources, and she tries to convince the audience to see things from her perspective. For this purpose, she uses vivid evidences from different surveys. For instance, Orenstein writes about the negative impact of social media that “an analysis of seventy-two studies performed on almost 1400 college students between 1979 and 2009 . . . Social media . . . Encourage[s] self-promotion over self-awareness (Orenstein 448). The author, in her argument, is logical enough to convince the audience by giving such evidences from outside sources. The whole paper is knitted logically from one paragraph to another, and there is a follow in her writing and every paragraph ends by touching the thesis statement- Internet and teenager. In addition, the writer tries very hard to involve the audience emotionally into her writing by playing with their emotions but she fails to do so. The presentation of different stories of different persons, which would evoke the emotion of the audience in a piece of fiction in the article loses its function and becomes only dead stories or ineffective stories but these serves as evidence of whatever she says. However when she says, “In the early days of the Web, people feared their daughters would be stalked by strangers online ”. She does not give any additional support before or after this statement and she assumes that the audience will trust her because of her being a famous writer (Orenstein 449). It might be true that most of the parents were afraid of stalking their daughters by strangers because of social media, but only stating it without additional supportive sources, it would be fallacy in reasoning. Furthermore, most of the paragraphs contain logical and credible external references to show the negative impact of social media on the teenagers, particularly on the girls. Besides, the writer’s inclusion of the research about the negative impact of the social media on the young people strengthens the importance of the argument as well as strengthening the ethos of authority. The writers writes that “according to Adriana Manago, a researcher at the Children’s Digital Media Center in Los Angeles who studies college students’ behavior on MySpace and Facebook, young people’s identities are becoming ever more externally driven, sculpture in response to feedback from network “friends” (Orenstein, 2012). The writer is right in giving such report as evidence of how social media is transforming the lives of not only youngsters but also to the people in general. The words “identity is driven externally” are fit in the context of modern life. In the life of social media, the young people try to become someone else after observing the outlook or outfits of celebrities on the social media. The youngsters do not know who they are and what their identities are. Identities are becoming complex, becoming hybrid because of the social media and media in general. The presentation of concrete evidence as mentioned in the above paragraphs is another important method of the author to persuade the readers about the social media and especially how social media is transforming or having negative impact of the young people. Not only does the author present concrete example to persuade the readers but also remain stuck to the topic, to her argument. The writer does not deviate from her argument about the negative impact of social media on the lives of teenagers. In addition to above, to analyze the rhetorical elements involved in the text by the author to make the essay effective would be interesting. The organization of the text is one of the rhetorical elements. While reading the text, it becomes clear that the organization of the essay is well crafted in the sense that one can follow the current of the thoughts depicted in the writing. Apparently it seems to be jumbled around different things but collectively presents a whole thought. Besides, while reading the text, it seems that someone is delivering a lecture or one is sitting in a classroom. It seems that one is talking about the topic to a group of people, and the writer expresses her feeling regarding the topic she is discussing. She is worried about the way girls are becoming alienated from their erotic feelings because of the abundance of the sexual interaction. The writer expresses her feeling, “The mind reel at the idea of such technology in the hands of teenage girls who are already the master of – and suckers for- stealth aggression.” This quotation shows the level of anxiety the writer goes, when she ponders over the negative impact of the social media. Furthermore, the tone of the text helps in convincing the audience to believe what the author is saying is worth believing. Here, it needs to be noted that the writer is only focused about the teenage girls’ become alienated from their erotic feelings and she does not talk about the effect of social media on the teenage boys. Reasoning is one of the rhetorical elements used in the text to articulate the argument regarding the negative impact of the Internet on the teenage girls, on their physical development. Besides, it would not be justice to the text if it were not examined from the choice of words. The writer uses for language, and the discussion is very serious. The wording of the text is very easy which is helpful in understanding the meaning of the text easily. It helps in understanding how the Internet is leading the teenagers towards the edge of distraction, towards the identity crisis and towards becoming alienated from their erotic feelings. Conclusion The rhetorical elements in the way of persuading the audience to believe about the negative impact of the Internet on the teenager, especially on the teenage girls are very helpful not only in making the essay persuasive but also keeping the reader’s attention attracted to it. For this purpose, the writer trusts on her credibility as a writer as well as on external sources. Further, the writer tries very hard to involve the audience emotionally into the reading but she fails to do so because the text is not a piece of fiction. To involve the reader emotionally or to catch the reader’s attention, the rhetorical devices used are very effective and persuasive to show the negative impact of social media. The social media is making the teenagers alienated from their erotic feeling, from the identity and form their sense of sexuality. Sexuality is losing its meaning because of the abundance of the sexual intercourse during the teenage. Works Cited Orenstein, P. (2012). Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Cultur. New York : HarperCollins. Read More