Christian Storrs English 1010 30 October 2013 Formal Rhetorical Analysis On the New York Times website, there

is an area named Room for Debate dedicated to different articles on political and cultural issues occurring in the U.S and from around the world. Many highly educated individuals have left their personal opinion on the situation at hand. In this essay, I have chosen to rhetorically analyze the debate of You Like Me! You Really Like Me! a discussion on the idea that Facebook is possibly linked to contributing to the proposal that young people are more narcissistic than earlier generations. Furthermore, I will dig deeper and analyze the minds of 3 out of 5 respected individuals who had left feedback on the discussion debate, and used rhetorical knowledge of the context to persuade the reader to be for or against the argument. And so, these men and women were either trying to persuade the reader that, social media like Facebook is or isnt turning our society into absolute narcissists. The backgrounds of these particular men and women vary from the founder of an online community (4chan.org) to assistant professor and professor majoring in psychology, or social research at known state wide Universities. The first debater I had chosen to analyze was Chris Poole who had the article of Dont Hate the Player, Hate the game he is the founder of 4chan.org. Poole had developed his anonymous online community a decade or so ago. Further, Poole believes that in our generation of living nothing is private, and our personal

information is more publically exposed then ever. In a sense, everybody is watching. Poole hints that people are not being honest with who they truly are. Consequently, people on social media show their surface selves or the actor in themselves of who they desire to be, instead of what is really happening in their daily lives. Poole mentions that the banal and boring go unnoticed which is why social media users of Facebook typically post the optimistic and manicured pieces of their lives. Nevertheless, Poole tends to push his anonymous posting website the best he can in hopes that others will understand that taking ones identity and expressing yourself as a stranger in an online community, can retain the raw and unfiltered posting the social media world so badly craves. Last but not least he tries to focus the point that there will always be narcissistic people, even if their identities are shown or not. Then again, from an audiences stand point I believe Pooles article was fairly simple to comprehend. I would assume that an audience could pick out the objective of the main point and understand clearly that the focus was on the idea that narcissists will use social media to their advantage, whether their identity is shown or not. For the second debater I had chosen, her stance was focused on a seemingly different note. Sara Konrath had submitted the article of Empathy on the Decline. Her expertise stems from experience in the University of Michigan as an assistant professor and at the Institute for Social Research, along with being the director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research, a research lab. Konrath believes that technology and social media has indeed increased peoples

worldly connections to friends and family. Though at the same time has created a thick sugar coat on their ability to personalize truthfully with one another. She claims social media users only show their surface self without exposing their internal being or behind the scenes truths. Next, Konrath notes that research has shown a steady increase in narcissistic behavior in the past 30 or so years, and states the idea that traits dealing with empathy have been declining. Konrath agrees that it is extremely convenient to blame social media for such behavior but realizes that research has shown that there tends to be a pattern in the way narcissistic people over use or more commonly use social media for reasons dealing with self-promotion in comparison to the average user. Selfies and status updates tend to be seen more frequently in the narcissistic person, claims Konrath. The article heavily stresses that offline narcissists are typically online ones as well. It seems to be that narcissism is able to manifest its self on a more public stage, Konrath hints. Furthermore, the article addresses cyber bulling and is known to be a severe issue in the social media world and can be a major side effect of the narcissist. Konrath claims that the cause isnt necessarily the websites fault, but the actual person themself and how it is being used. On the other hand, the article pushes the idea that social media can also affect people in entirely opposite ways and actually expands our compassion through pro-social behavior or in other words voluntary behavior that is used to benefit one another. And so, the article states that there will be a Compassion and Technology Conference at Stanford University on December 6th 2013. This conference will be a contest involving multiple inventors,

designers and engineers with one goal of submitting a compassion-inspired application. Those who win the best design idea will earn a large sum of money and a chance to meet the holy 14th Dalai Lama. Lastly, the article indicates that it may be worth having an understanding of whether the same technologies (Facebook) that have been associated with negative impacts on empathy decline could also have the reverse affect and be apart of the key in resolving these serious issues. In like manner, if an audience was to read this article, they would see that Konrath (being a social researcher) sways towards the notion that mankind its self creates narcissism. Not technology or social networking sites. The third and last debater was for the idea that Facebook can and will be used as a Narcissism Enabler. Jean Twenge wrote the article Its a Narcissism Enabler on The New York Times Room For Debate. Twenge has an exceptionally well-respected background as a Psychology professor at San Diego State University. Twenge has been practicing Psychology for 20 years and is the author of Generation Me, a booked focused on why todays young American generations are more assertive, entitled, confident and more miserable than ever before. Next, Twenge begins her argument with a thought that involves the concept that attention seekers no longer need patience, and a multitude of people can be your audience in and instant. Twenge suggests that people have turned to social media to fulfill a void in their lives and boost self-image/esteem. This self-esteem boost is just a status update away.

Furthermore, Twenge noticed that people are overly focused on themselves in our current culture. This results in many studies that have found that the narcissists who have an extremely large amount of friends on Facebook typically tend to post more and with that, especially provocative material, claims Twenge. Moreover, The article refers to a study done on Science Direct. This was a test consisting of two different experiments, the first was focused on a group of college students who were each randomly assigned to either edit their MySpace page or complete some kind of control task online dealing with Google maps. The students who focused on their personal MySpace page scored greatly higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory or (NPI) than those who were assigned the Google Maps assignment. The second experiment consisted of those who focused on their Facebook Page and the others on the Google maps control task. The students whose focal point was on their Facebook page scored greatly higher in general selfesteem although their (NPI) scores didnt change, meaning that narcissism was not a factor. This experiment showed that young people affirm more positive selfviews when using social media sites. Facebook was not attributed to endorsing narcissistic behavior. Twenge concluded in her article that narcissism unmistakably lead to more social media use, and that social media use could also lead to more positive self-views. From an audiences perspective, I believe that they would agree that Twenge created a more factual and scientific approach when writing her article, rather than simply spewing out her personal opinion as a psychologist. The reader would grasp

her strong focus on human natures instinctual needs for love and attention and how Facebook can fulfill these needs for better or worse. Therefore, concluding this essay starts with looking back at the first article that was analyzed. The information that was given showed that even Poole who was endorsing the idea that social media does not persuade one to become narcissistic but that the person themselves are the narcissist. Poole who wrote, Dont Hate the Player Hate the Game was subtly able to promote his own website on this debate forum showing that his article was indeed what he was aiming for. He was able to show that even those debating about who and what is narcissistic can just as well be a narcissist. Secondly I discussed Konraths article on Empathy on the Decline, this article showed that even though our technology has increased and our worldly connections have expanded beyond belief, humanity hides behind a mask of desire and envy and the consequences can lead to very optimistic or totally negative effects including cyber-bullying. Kontrath claimed that it was not the websites fault but the people and how it was used. And lastly we examined Twenges article relating Psychology and scientific reasoning to explain that social media sites can either significantly make or break someone depending on the amount of engagement and time spent on the site itself. As a result overall, I noticed very similar views on each debate, each debater held to some degree that narcissistic people would always exist and always have. They each stressed that social media is just a convenient tool that the narcissist can use to their advantage. Good people use social media sites for wholesome reasons as well. The debaters and or audience should all agree that no matter the social media

site, there will always be empathetic and compassionate people along with self absorbed and narcissistic folks as well.

Reflection Statement Firstly, I began my first year at SLCC this past fall, after transferring for the better from UVU. I plan on completing the rest of my general credits here in Salt Lake and obtaining my associates following that, I plan on continuing my education at the U of U.

And so, it is now nearing an end for the fall semester of 2013. I have come a long way from where I once was just a few months back. Before taking a semester of English, I was far beyond rusty when it came to writing. This formal rhetorical analysis along with the writing assignments leading up to this one, have taught me a multitude of new traits to better improve myself as a writer. For an example, I have learned how to properly summarize an article, along with gaining an understanding of how to use the ever so important transitional words to help move an essay, or formal paper along smoothly.

I will walk away from this English 1010 class with a new sense of confidence in my writing. With this, I can better myself in every class that I take in the future. Knowing how to organize a paper correctly is a much-needed skill when it comes to education. Moreover, with completing this rhetorical analysis, I couldnt have

proved my last point any better. Lastly, as a simple conclusion, I now know that writing well, will be the key to my success in the upcoming years of schooling.