Rhetorical Analysis

Omayra Bermea

Rhetorical Analysis

03/10/2017

RWS
 Rhetorical Analysis

I choose to discuss the article, Influence of Social Media on

Teenagers by Suren Ramasubbu, In this article Suren attempts to identify

and analyze the implications of social media use by teens and how much of a

problem this is now a days, how we should take action to protect teens.

The intended audience is parents who want to learn more about the

effects of social media on their kids. The author writes Adolescence is the

time to spread wings and take the tentative first flight out into the world, and

parents and caregivers must be part of the process. This statement speaks

directly to anyone who is in guardianship of a teen that uses social media. By

using diction like must the author implies that if the parent is not part of

their childs online life they will suffer consequences. This article also

intended this to be read by an educated, middle class, educated individual

because that is the publications key demographic.

The online publication that this article was published on was The

Huffington Post. This online news source has a record of publishing articles

that generally lean to the left. They are viewed as a legitimate source

because they have a history of reporting accurate information, especially in

the political sphere. They have had no major scandals where they have

reported inaccurate information or fake news. The website used an easy to

read font and the ads did not distract from the reading experience. Nothing

about the webpage gives off the impression that It is not legitimate.
 Rhetorical Analysis

The author utilizes ethos within his essay by citing other professional

sources. He uses an abundance of statistics to better his argument. He

makes sure to use only sources people are familiar and have placed trust in

before. For example, he cites The American Psychological Association as well

as National Council on Crime Prevention. By including hyperlinked text with

each survey or report he cites he gives the user a sense of security that this

information is real and accurate. By simply clicking the words the user is

linked to where the information was gathered to they have no question

whether or not the studies took place.

By reviewing the publication and authors credentials and integrity the

reader gets a better understanding of where ethos was violated in the piece.

The writer is Suren Ramasubbu co-founder and CEO of Mobicip a Parental

Control and Internet company. This already foreshadows a potential conflict

of interest. Because the writer has a financial stake in whether or not people

agree with his opinion some might conclude his ethos is violated. The author

might have a bias because he might just want to instill fear into parents in

order to generate revenue for his company. It is clear that he is not hiding

the fact he owns a company which deals with the subject matter of the

article. The author title on the online page is a hyperlink to a small summary

about himself where he discloses that he owns the service. The piece ends

with Mobicip offers powerful parental controls for the iPad and other mobile

internet devices. Learn more at www.mobicip.com. A plug for his internet

service which could potentially give off an unethical impression.

 Rhetorical Analysis

Pathos was used by the author in order to demonstrate the severity of

the subject matter. His pathos is intended to work on parents because it

involves their kids. By describing in detail the sometimes-deadly dangers of

social media the writer is instilling the sense of fear in the reader. The author

states things such as It is essential that parents are aware of and monitor

privacy settings and online profiles of their wards. By including the word

essential the author gives off the impression that if a parent is not

monitoring their childrens online activity they are doing something wrong.

How well an adult is able to parent is an important

aspect in society so the reader might be inclined to adjust his parenting

accordingly to benefit to fit a status quo. He does use pathos effectively

because he speaks directly to his intended audience.

Suren really implied logos in this article by showing us different type of

articles and studies proving his point. The first article he talked about was a

report by Common Sense Media, 75 percent of teenagers in America

currently have profiles on social networking sites, of which 68 percent use

Facebook as their main social networking tool. He talks about peer pressure

being a risk that cannot be overlooked, Internet addiction and sleep

deprivation are issues that continue to be under intense scrutiny for the

contradictory results that have been obtained in various studies. He as well

used another article by The Pew Research Center, this article talks about the

cyberbullying part of social media. 32 percent of online teens admit to

having experienced a range of menacing online advances from others. He

 Rhetorical Analysis

mentioned how there is two kinds of people that are most likely to

cyberbully, the popular ones & those on the fringe of society, the former

resort to such activities to stay popular or to feel powerful, while the latter

troll to fit into a society or to get back at a society that excludes them.

This article really showed us the problems that come with social media

pages and how they really affect us. He proved his point very well and used

all three Ethos, Pathos, Logos and he really did explain all of his theories, he

had great back up for his facts and was still able to find a way to connect

with parent and teens.

Reference:

Ramasubbu, S. (2015, May 26). Influence of Social Media on Teenagers. Retrieved May

12, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/influence-of-social-media-on-

teenagers_b_7427740.html