Wittenberg 1

Seth Wittenberg

Ms. Maple

ENG 101-29

October 2, 2018

Rhetorical Analysis

3.1 Billion people are social media users worldwide. Having this many people using

social media can bring a variety of positives and negatives to the world we live in. We value all

good things this new wave of technology brings to our lives without thinking of the bas things

that it may also bring. For example, 210 million people are estimated to suffer from internet and

social media addictions. As we evolve as a species it is important we are aware of how the world

is changing and how quickly.

In the first poster, it portrays a woman behind held down by a cellular device showing

different social media platforms on it. We also see that she is chained to it while underwater to

show she is struggling to get air. In the second poster, we see in big letters “NO ONE WILL

READ THIS POSTER”. This makes the audience feel attracted towards the poster by telling us

what we should or shouldn’t be doing. Below the text they show two thought clouds with facts

about the lack of privacy that comes with social media. Both posters target the same audience,

people that use social media.

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Pathos is shown in the first picture through image of seeing a woman be held down in

chains by social media and struggling to escape while drowning underwater. The emotion behind

this image has a big impact on society because it shows how helpless the woman is because of

social media and feels accurate concerning the effect cyberbullying can have on a person or even

becoming addicted to any form of social media. Pathos in the second picture is shown through

the audience being told that millions of people can see your posts everyday which can catch

someone off guard because of this fact. Another example is the thought clouds that they write the

notes in make the audience think about what’s in them partly because they are in the “thought

clouds”.

In the second image, “Millions can read your Facebook and twitter posts” this is an

example of ethos because of how the fact is shown to make it a credible source and influences

the audiences understanding of the poster. This fact showed me that even when you might think

your posts are secure and only your friends are seeing them they could getting screenshot and

sent around to people you might not even know. So, it is always good to be careful about what

you put on social media.

Ethos in the first image isn’t really represented but when looking at the image the icons

on the phone show is popular social media engines where you would probably post most of your

social media posts and have most of your conversations.

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This image effectively shows us that there are lots of ways to get your word out there but can

also affect the way you live or the way you interact with others depending on who sees what you

could possibly be posting.

Logos is shown in the first image by showing the woman struggling to breath and

chained down. This makes us think that because of social media this woman is struggling to

breath and live. It also shows how she wants to escape the grasps of the chains which is a

metaphor to how social media can bring us up but could also bring us down to where we can’t

get back up. In the second poster the logos is shown with the big letters saying that “No one will

read this poster” and “But millions can read your Facebook and twitter posts”. This makes the

audience feel connected logically through making the audience think before they post something

online for the future.

When thinking about social media we are too excited about how far we’ve come we need

to focus more on where we are and how to make social media a safe environment for the people

using it. 3.1 billion people are using these different platforms to express themselves and they

should be able to feel free to say what they want but understand the consequences of that once

someone puts something out there it can be fully brought back in. The world is changing quickly

and the more innovative and smarter we become the more careful and safer we have to be.
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Works Cited

 Petersen, Lainie. “The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and

Individuals.” Small Business - Chron.com, Chron.com, 29 June 2018,

 “Addicted to Social Media?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,