Irma Villarreal
Professor Werry
RWS 100
September 17, 2015
Public Thinking
Clive Thompson, a Canadian freelance journalist, graduated from the University of Toronto in 1992 with degrees in Political Science and English. With his article, “Public Thinking,” Thompson enters the conversation regarding how technology has impacted human cognition in society. Since people started using portable technology more than pen and paper, Thompson would argue that it has changed the way people write and develop their thoughts. Thompson tries to persuade his audience of students and educated adults that technology has made a significant impact in society. Thompson claims that our current technology encourages more writing, better writing and it allows the writer to generate more content. With the use of rhetorical strategies such as, statistical evidence, examples, logos and ethos, Thompson is able to support each of his claims. This essay will analyze Thompson’s main claims and the rhetorical strategies that he used to prove that technology and social media serve as a powerful role in society.
One of Thompson’s main claims is that technology makes students write more today than they did in the past. The Internet has allowed people to write and communicate more, according to Thompson, “before the Internet came along, most people rarely wrote anything at all for pleasure or intellectual satisfaction after graduating from High School or College” (48). He believes technology has been beneficial to our live because it gives people more options to share their thoughts. Thompson supports this claim with statistical evidence: “Each day, we compose 154 billion e-mails, more than 500 million tweets on Tweeter, and over 1 million blog posts and 1.3 million blog comments on WordPress alone.” The use of statistical evidence appeals to the reader’s logic because it shows that there is evidence to believe the claim is true. By giving his audience evidence, he shows his reader the quantitative impact Internet has had on society’s writing habits.
Thompson also claims that the Internet provides an audience for the writer that encourages better writing. He asserts that technology and social media have changed our cognitive behavior, for example, the way we read, write and think. Thompson shares the story of Ory Okolloh, a young law student who“…had never written anything for an audience,” (45) but when she started writing a blog, she felt free to post her thoughts and daily life anecdotes. This example shows that the Internet gives people more practice sharing their thoughts and ideas to others through writing on the Internet. Ory Okolloh thought that because she did not had the experience of working with an audience it was better for her to post her thoughts and when somebody asked her to write a whole book she went on panic, the thing is that everything she had posted was already the size of a book so she did know how to work with an audience analyzing her thoughts. This example supports Thompson’s claim by showing a specific instance where an audience helped to encourage better writing.
Technology connects people, encourages public thinking and it also makes people to generate more ideas when writing. Thompson argues “The new forms of digital writing, particularly their “public” character, involve writing for an audience, and this change significantly improves writing and thinking”(54) in other words, he states that writing through the internet does help people because it is easier for them to write and the reason is that they can write down their thoughts faster. The author supports this claim by referencing expert Gabriel Weinberg, a founder of DuckDuckGo, who states “Blogging forces you to write down your arguments and assumptions” (52). By referencing an authority, Thompson builds his credibility by showing his audience that others have similar ideas as him. His appeal to ethos causes a better chance that his audience will find his claim convincing that the Internet can be beneficial to thinking.
Thompson’s main argument is that social media had changed the way people write, read and think because it helps them to share their thoughts easily. The rhetorical strategy he uses in this claim is logos because it makes logical connection to the reader by the use of statistics. He argues that having an audience will make people to do better because it opens their minds and they can generate more ideas. In this claim Thompson appeals to the reader with ethos because by giving an example and anecdote of other person he makes his argument more credible. The author also states that writing on the Internet helps to complete brain thoughts and it allows a better memory. He uses rhetorical strategies to support his claims. I think Thompson’s claims changed his audience point of view about the Internet and the good sides of it.
By adding many rhetorical strategies Thompson made his statements to appeal more to the reader because it is more credible to have more than one opinion supporting his arguments. It was effective the way he addresses his rhetorical strategies for example when he uses statistics to prove that what he states is true. I consider that Thompson’s way to address statistics is his strength because he proves his audience that all of his arguments are true by giving real numbers and by adding to his article all those people who uses the social media effectively. Clive Thompson’s topic is relevant to society because it helps them to think about the good points of having a social media between us. The author has changed the way I thought about the importance of having social media around us. I did not give the necessary attention to the Internet before reading Thompson’s argument, because I was one of those people who thought having a social media did not was not something we should care about.
irmavilla 