Austin Granger

English 1010
3/5/2017
Rhetorical Analysis

Why Social Networking Makes Us Less Social By Paul Hudson

In the modern world of today, we as a society rely heavily on social

medias to connect from one to another. Resulting in the loss of socializing,

truly making us less social. It is widely believed that the means of

connectivity are doing the opposite; they are driving us further away, as

stated in Paul Hudsons Elite Daily article titled: Why Social Networking

Makes Us Less Social. It is addressed in this article by the authors point of

view, that as our technologies increase, our ease of convince does as well.

That we are traveling farther down the path of isolation, than that of

connectivity. It is also as far reaching as the way we adapt socially to these

new devices and means of connection.

Paul Hudson is one of the many article authors that belong to the sight;

Elite Daily. Writing extensive articles and posts on the subject matter at

hand, and others including many articles on love and life. The topic article

was posted May 20th, 2013 and was at the time, a rather large debate topic

that had since stemmed from the ever-increasing use of social medias. The

topic at hand having two different sides of the issue, primarily has many on

the side of the authors; that there is evidence that social media has in fact
and truly made us less social. Paul Hudson primarily discusses the topic in a

neutral fashion, addressing the issue at hand while still connecting to the

opposition. Reaching for the middle ground, the author is in the position of

reaching out to a wider audience, in an attempt to make the views aware of

his article. This audience being users of social media, such as Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram; and many more. When delving into the articles topic

matter, it can be assumed that there is already a stance that is built, for

either against the article or more over with it. Using it as an attempt to widen

ones eyes to their usage, or just how far weve come down the social

evolution as a society.

In Paul Hudsons article, Paul addresses how we originally started

communicating as a person to person basis, verbally. And once the world had

gotten bigger, we have moved onto letters. Pauls article goes on to state

that as our technologies advanced, that our intolerance for inconvenience for

socializing began. That as a whole we no longer wanted to wait for letters,

and would rather have our information obtained almost instantaneously. And

to further it, our relationships themselves had grown to across seas, to which

was a challenge to the way we communicate. To which Paul is correct, why

wait when you can have instant gratification for connecting, the ease of

access eliminates the process of effectively communicating. Paul notes that

we are able to communicate on a more vast and readily available system of

communications, via Texting, Emails, Messages etc. The less time we spend

interacting, the more we can have in quantity. But at a cost. It is becoming

less personal. To which Paul is also correct, it is true that we can hold more in

quantity, however the quality has dropped significantly. And in ways this has

made us intolerable to the little things in life that make a conversation worth

while. Its stated that in this day and age, we attempt to make interactions

brief and manageable. That wed prefer not to dial the phone, but to send a

message. No longer indulging in conversations, but rather sharing more

readily available information. Shortening even those with abbreviations and

acronyms. Textese. Having little to no offer to the world of themselves, but

that of the world. Why spend the time going out to dinner with your friend,

when you can just see how he is doing with his online post. Paul does make a

good note on this regard, and quite simply nail it on the head. Why put in

effort into what you have to say as well, when you can simplify it and move

your point across with little to no effort. The textese he regards to, seems

to be more prevalent in todays modern society, and is indirectly taught by

means of socializing. Grammar class is not only taught in class, but by the

means in which we use it with our peers. Paul goes onto state that while all

of these are an ease of use, the interpersonal actions or words used by

others is not there. The body language, the personality. It is voided in the

terms of use. Its stated that our commination skills are dwindling with this

new age and era of communication. It is almost becoming obsolete. As

quoted by Paul: We no longer stop to smell the roses in fact, we dont

stop. Our Society encourages us to minimize input, maximize efficiency and

maximize output do less and get more. With Pauls notions, it gives us the
idea that squishing in more smaller conversations, gives us a more

satisfying, fulfilled one than a real conversation. Which cannot be true. There

is no basis that makes it more meaningful and in regards to this, drives us

further from the truth. That indeed our means of communicating have inhibit

a true way to do so.

Paul Hudson creates a very captivating and relatable article on the

issue at hand. Using a personal basis of how we use our technology daily to

communicate with one another, while also relating how its also causing the

opposite. Paul Hudsons article is listed well, finding the escalation and the

crescendo of the piece more over fulfilling and satisfying, as well as being

inspiring and personal to the reader. The author relays the importance of the

issue on a personal level, making the reader connect to the point-and-case

scenarios whilst refraining from over indulging on why it is bad for you.

Throughout the majority of the article, it hammers in the potency of its

importance of the topic, never straying too far from the main point why

social media is making us less social. Paul Hudson does mention a few times

in his article how this also leaks over to the ease of dating, and how its so

readily accessible and easier purely based on a time frame alone. Having

Paul naming out and using the popular social media sites that we use as

evidence, he is able to effectively bring his audience in to his side of his

cause, and relay the way we use these to the way we ought to effectively

communicate.
 In our modern society, we are finding ourselves less social by means of

our media. Paul Hudsons execution of the topic is of utter importance,

relaying just how far weve fallen in terms of effectively, and (on a personal

level) communicate. The ease of access, and ambiguity has reshaped the

backbones of socializing, communicating has since been lost. No longer do

we need to socialize, we have our instant gratification online, which in turn

reduces the need to socialize. Social media -has- made us less social.

Reference:

Hudson, Paul. Why Social Networking Makes Us Less Social elitedaily.com,

Elite Daily

http://elitedaily.com/life/why-social-networking-makes-us-less-social/ May

20th, 2013. Accessed March 3rd 2017