I can honestly be
the first to say that social media consumes me. And yes, I do mean to say
consume here because that’s exactly what it does to me—it eats away at my free
time, gobbles up my train of thought, and snacks on my little pieces of
productivity. No matter how much I try to avoid it, I can’t—especially in the
world of writing. Even right now, I’m logged into Facebook. It’s a problem,
really. However, working for Outside Bozeman, social media important for my job
I’m constantly editing blogs, posting on Facebook, or tweeting. Then, because I
think I’m super witty and incredibly clever, I have to log back into these
social media sites to see how many people have liked, commented on, or shared
what I’ve said.
A couple weeks
ago, I found this article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/02/daily-chart-0.
It talks about the
Facebook community as a whole in regards to its users. Basically, if Facebook
users were a country, it would be the biggest, based on population, following
closely behind China and India. Obviously, I’m not the only person addicted. In
fact, there are an estimated 50 million other people who log on everyday like I
do.
Here’s a video on basic
facts about social media. Keep in mind that even though this was near the end
of 2011, some of these facts have already changed just within the year.
With the advent of
social media, many people have been concerned about the decreasing forms of
human narrative. Hard copy newspaper sales have decreased and the use of
grammar books have plummeted. While these are real things, they aren’t
completely our focus with this. What I want to focus in on is how social media
is being used as rhetoric.
I decided to do a
little research of my own this past weekend looking through my Facebook feeds and Twitter
feeds trying to find trends among what people say about what they post. I
wasn’t too interested in the pictures, but instead how people interpreted and presented
things. Here are three specific things I’ve found personally:
1. Ignorant
simplicity – People really enjoy this sense of childlike behavior that happens
through the posting of very uncomplicated posts.
2. Fierce
and vehement opposition of all counter-arguments – There is a huge abundance of
name-calling, pointed “you’re wrong and this is why” statements, and also flat
out lies just to prove a point.
3. Absence
of dull and lac of attention grabbing content – When people post something, they want it to
be read, entertaining, and shared. They do this through the use of humor and
cunning statements. People that get the most feedback are those that practice
this well.
Now, I’m not
saying these things previously listed are true of everyone. There are always
exceptions. These are just observations that are trending.
As we’ve probably
all heard by now, Aristotle focuses in on three principles to rhetoric—ethos,
pathos, and logos. They address the personal credibility, emotion, and logic
behind an argument.
With this in
mind, you do actually see each of these things in social media. There are
people that post things that encompass all of these facets of rhetoric. People
choose to portray themselves in a specific way to reach a specific audience.
Because it’s the Internet and you can mostly do what you want, people can make
themselves seem like whatever they want. I’ve seen people incredibly shy in
face-to-face conversation, but then fill their Facebook feeds with strong
opinions and politics and sports.
People influence
people. It’s just basic human nature. Yes, advertisements drive our thinking
visually, but it’s friends and coworkers that influence us based on their
opinions. Many people see social media as a way of advancing their own agendas.
This is where the rhetorical side of social media comes in. People seek to
influence and persuade people, not too different from Socrates. In my opinion,
I think that’s the whole point of social media — so people who have things in
common can all talk about and share their opinions on whether that’s family,
music, politics, or whatever else. The possibilities for rhetorical discourse
in social media are endless.
There are some
people in fervent opposition of social media, especially in regards to small
children. In fact, an article posted in the New York Times back in April warns
us of the dangers of social media. It states that children are losing the
ability to self-reflect and that it takes away emotions that spark rational
thinking and the capability to relate to people. They see this as being
extremely dangerous for the next generation.
As with anything,
power can be used for good or bad. The power in this case is the Internet.
People can, for the most part, do what they want to with it. They can say what
they want, when they want, and where they want. It’s a community all it’s own
and the major place of rhetorical discourse still alive within our society.
Social media can and does influence our thoughts and actions. Sometimes this is
good, other times this can be bad. Whatever the case, social media is very
likely to continue being a major rhetor within our world — it’s up to us as the
audience to decipher from the rhetoric what we choose to believe.
*On a side note, please make an
effort to unplug every now and again. The Internet is awesome, so is Facebook,
but remember those friends actually making the profile accounts. They’re real
people with real lives. Remember reality.
