Rhetorical Composing Strategies

Student Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name and Code

Professors Name

Date

Rhetorical Composing Strategies

Since the emergence of social media, its impact has been felt by people of all ages. Social media has several advantages, such as making the world a global village and improving business clientele through marketing. However, it has come to be known to have more disadvantages. Rhetorical techniques will support how I convey my arguments and convince my audience about the effects of social media on users. These tactics, often referred to as rhetorical strategies, assist me in organizing the evidence, connecting the findings into a logical order, and providing the informational groupings required to express a goal or an opinion. Research shows that people must be held accountable for their actions to improve their social media habits. This paper discusses rhetorical composing strategies that I will use to reach my audience and explain my purpose.

Defining and Describing Purpose

Most people do not understand the effects of social media on them. They think social media should entirely consume their life since it is the current norm. I will start by defining what good social media habits are and which are not. I will also define terms based on the topic, which may not be known by the different audiences, which include adults and teenagers (Corrigan & Slomp, 2021). Describing situations and places will make the audience understand better. For example, in social media, the audience needs to understand that there are both advantages and disadvantages to it.

Audience and Context

The audience may not understand the various effects of social media and its causes. It is, therefore, my job to analyze them based on my prior research (Javadi- Safa, 2018). One effect of social media is a lack of social interaction with people. This is primarily due to staying indoors and hiding behind screens. The exact cause can lead to a lack of exercise since people spend more time on social media than doing physical exercises such as running or walking. Lack of physical exercise may lead to heart problems, diabetes, cancer, and other lifestyle diseases (Allcot et al., 2020). Another effect is an increase in low self-esteem and depression in teenagers. Teenagers want to meet specific standards showcased on the different social media platforms. They feel they are not good enough if they cannot meet such standards.

Another effect is an increase in sexual interactions among teenagers. Social media platforms have made teenagers more aware of this topic that most adults do not openly discuss. They also want to experiment with most of the things they see on these platforms without adult supervision. Another effect is a lack of quality sleep (Allcot et al., 2020). Most people use social media in bed until they fall asleep. Some do not sleep since they spend the whole night glued to their screens. These may lead to being tired the following day and not being actively productive at work.

Strategies

Comparing and Contrasting

The audience must also understand the differences and similarities based on the advantages and disadvantages of social media (Javadi- Safa, 2018). Another factor to compare and contrast was life before and after social media. They should be informed that social media was created for its advantages. These advantages include communicating with people all over the world and also as a way to pass information to large numbers of people all at once. One may say that the platforms were also made for entertainment (Allcot et al., 2020). Look at businesses, for example. Online businesses are currently more profitable compared to physical stores. They are more accessible, faster, effective, and convenient. This was made evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. People can also shop from all over the world. Again, during the pandemic, there were no social gatherings, so people had to hold online meetings. This was another time social media proved to be advantageous.

However, social media has way more disadvantages. First, it is addictive, so people can spend hours on their devices and forget about their lives. The first thing people do after waking up and before sleeping is check their social media. They lack social interactions with people around them, such as neighbors and friends, but they communicate with people worldwide (Allcot et al., 2020). In social media, people also fake certain lifestyles making teenagers feel not good enough. Some teenagers even face mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety through cyberbullying. It is, however, not possible to take gadgets away from teenagers because they use them for other activities, such as learning.

Before the arrival of social media, people were not exposed to things that were happening all over the world. They only knew about what was in their countries—people communicated through letters, postcards, and emails. People mostly interacted in person and were closer to people around them (Allcot et al., 2020). Businesses were all physical stores, and one had to show up in person to purchase a product. However, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues were not that high. Life before and after social media is incomparable. It feels like decades apart, yet it was less than twenty years ago.

Classifying and Dividing

An excellent strategy to deliver a message to an audience is dividing them into groups (Corrigan & Slomp, 2021). Since all people are affected by social media, I would have them in two groups, adults and teenagers. The adults would be educated on managing social media habits in their homes. These would include imposing rules on social media time usage and discipline. They should monitor what their children are doing on these platforms. They should also be educated to lead by example by spending more time with their kids than on their gadgets. Teenagers, on the other hand, since there are more affected by social media, will need more time (Allcot et al., 2020). They should be educated on the advantages and disadvantages of social media. They should also know the benefits of being accountable for their actions on social media. Most will need counseling due to depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues caused by social media.

Medium and Arrangement

The best medium would be through social media since the target audience is the users. The audience needs to understand all the processes associated with social media (Javadi- Safa, 2018). One process is that of addiction. They need to be aware that it takes doing an action for three weeks for it to become a habit. After that, it becomes a lifestyle. Staring at the screens and browsing social media may be fun until one feels like one can not live without it. People fail to eat, exercise, work or do normal life activities (Allcot et al., 2020). It causes more significant harm to teenagers than adults, which is why they need to understand such processes. They need to learn how mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem may arise from social media. By learning the processes, they are more aware and more willing to be accountable regarding social media.

Conclusion

Rhetorical techniques will support how I convey my arguments and convince my audience. These tactics, often referred to as rhetorical strategies, assist me in organizing the evidence, connecting the findings into a logical order, and providing the informational groupings required to express a goal or an opinion. I have discussed the strategies of defining and describing, analyzing causes and effects, comparing and contrasting, explaining processes, and finally, classifying and dividing. By using these strategies, my audience will likely understand more about social media’s effects on users and find ways to eliminate the issue and move in the right direction.

References

Allcott, H., Braghieri, L., Eichmeyer, S., & Gentzkow, M. (2020). The welfare effects of social media. American Economic Review, 110(3), 629-76. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25514/w25514.pdf

Corrigan, J. A., & Slomp, D. H. (2021). Articulating a sociocognitive construct of writing expertise for the digital age. http://142.66.3.39/bitstream/handle/10133/6269/Slomp-articulating-a-sociocognitive.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yJavadi-Safa, A. (2018). A brief overview of key issues in second language writing teaching and research. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 6(2), 12-25. https:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/4404-9609-1-PB.pdf