Joshua Wooi
English 250
Professor Meredith Smith-Lane
2 May, 2019
Revision of Rhetorical Analysis of “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am”
Are you really who you are… on Twitter? (Orenstein 346) The question is posed by author Peggy Orenstein in “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am”, published by NY Times through the Identity Reader. In the information age of today, social media users expand towards a big majority of any reasonably developed civilization. Given the sentiment, it stands to reason that the article was intended to reach this audience in detriment of the contrived nature of any given individual’s presentation of themselves online. Despite the initial impression of a condescending undertone in the article, Orenstein has provided some convincing arguments to a clear realisation of the harmful ramifications of social media abuse in the article.
As a demonstration of the ethos argument, Orenstein indicated that this article was written in response to an observation of her own social media use (347). By establishing herself as a fellow social media user, it is suggested that Orenstein does not speak with her nose in the air. This makes her seem credible and puts the reader in a less defensive position as it is made clear that she is coming from a place of concern rather than of disdain. Also, by composing the article in the first-person perspective, the article appears more personal to the author. This made the concerns raised seem more validated and the article more credible as a whole. Then, when she referenced studies and citing learned individuals, such as sociologist Erving Goffman and M.I.T. professor Sherry Turkle (Orenstein 347-348), it shows that the author has done an ample amount of research for this article which establishes reliability, and a trust that the author is adequately knowledgeable on this topic.
Orenstein has also demonstrated an effective use of pathos in this article. The first paragraph narrates a convincing story about the drastic change in her life as an author and a mother due to her use of Twitter (Orenstein 347). Here, she was aiming to create an emotional response from the readers, which would then develop an emotional connection. Because of this established connection with the readers, when the author then expressed dejection towards her social media misuse (Orenstein 347), Orenstein was subtly projecting her own feelings and inner-conflicts towards the readers. This would then invoke self-reflection in the readers’ own practices on social media. Also, when Orenstein alluded to the erosion of intimate relationships due to the performance culture of social media (348), she was playing on the sentiment that all humans crave personal relationships. By making the point of having it taken away by the misuse of social media, the author is utilizing pathos by the association in the negativity of that sentiment.
In addition, Orenstein displayed a good use of logos when talking about the studies and information brought up in the article. There, the author referenced a research conducted by professor Turkle that found social media abuse to incite vanity (Orenstein 348). To quote Oreinstein’s findings, “…the self was increasingly becoming externally manufactured rather than internally developed,” (348). In doing so, the opinion that social media advocates performance culture becomes closer to fact, which adds to the validation of the author’s argument of the façade in people’s online presentation of themselves. The author then cited a research conducted by the University of Michigan on the decline of empathy, coinciding it with the rise of social media, and making the implicit link between the two facts (348). While it was clarified by Orenstein that there was no direct correlation between the two facts, the consequences of self-promotion over self-awareness made the implication clear (348).
In short, Peggy Orenstein successfully made her point in her article that while social media definitely has its benefits, abuse can lead to negative outcomes. The effective use of the ethos, pathos, and logos mode of persuasion has led to the conclusion that the author has fulfilled her purpose of communicating her viewpoint in the use, or rather misuse, of social media. With that said, if anything is to be taken from this article, it is that the practice of moderation in social media use should be put into effect.