Keeping up with the Jones' Social Media

    Rhetoric in social media is an art that can be used for wonderful advances and progressions, but in more times than not, it is used in a poor way. It is used either in a negative context or in an inefficient manner in which the point will never be virally spread. Professor Damien stated, "Rhetoric is a technique." Rhetorical content is up for interpretation, but the speaker or writer uses rhetoric to bend the reader's perspective as they want it. Mastering the technique of rhetoric is mastering the technique of perception. 

    Mastering the technique of rhetoric is mastering the technique of deception. The sly tongue of a rhetorical speaker can slip people's minds into a dark place in which only satan can be the cause. It bends the truth so we cannot actually see the reality; we can only see the fragmented pieces of our assumption of reality. The evil of persuasion has affected humans ever since our primitive nature, but became extremely prevalent in Ancient Greece as disturbing teachings came from schemers such as Socrates. 

    Mastering the technique of rhetoric is mastering the technique of persuading the betterment of human-kind. The understandings and interpretations of wise speakers are passed on to future generations year-after-year using rhetoric. Without rhetoric, how could we possibly convince people to live a life of virtue? How could we possibly nudge them the right direction to eternal happiness? The greatest leaders in this world had polished their persuasion techniques so they could positively bring groups of people together and make the world a better place.

    The past two paragraphs were simple examples of the term rhetoric. Paragraph number one used words and statements the average person would think negatively upon and automatically paint negative ideas about persuasion. The second paragraph praised the positive light of persuasion and painted a happy world, full of agreeing populations within our minds. As the world progresses and new technology abrupt from the hands of men, rhetoric has spread from verbal to written to "posted". By posted, I mean by social media. From the age we can read, to the age we leave this world, humans are engulfed by technology. We no longer have to wait weeks for letters of information, or days for the local newspaper to publish the world's activities. We only have to wait seconds for events to be plastered across the unknown world of the internet.

    Social media has obvious trends that people either pick up on and it goes viral (water bucket challenges, terms such as "MCM-man candy monday", hashtags "#"), or people let drop such as "If you love your mother, share this post". For some unfortunate reason, there is a history of negative trends being picked up and gone viral than positive lighting. This may because people are amused by the emotional excitement drama brings to their life, but it is also because positive things has not been using positive rhetoric. 

    A website explains it perfectly while explaining the definitions of ethos and pathos. https://sites.psu.edu/mallorypeterson25/2012/11/29/rhetoric-in-social-media/ is a website titled Rhetoric in Social Media. Ethos is not just about your ego, but it is about emotion. Rhetoric uses its technique to pull out emotional value from a reader. When something touches a reader about what they truly care about and stirs up feelings from within, it will more easily have the power to persuade them one way or another. Pathos is all about character. Facebook can be an important median to share charitable causes.
    Rhetoric is constantly changing and trying to keep up with the rapid progression of social media. The ineffective utility of rhetoric in social media causes it to spread in a viral way extremely fast, but if positive rhetoric can keep up with the advances of technology and if it can outweigh the negative portraits, social media could change the world and transform it into a beaming, positive enlightenment.

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