Rhetorical Analysis of New Media (With a Spiritual Twist)

As I read all the articles, each brought forth a different emotion. The last one I read, "Can You Hear Me Now?", left me pretty frustrated with how disconnected we are with the human beings right around us. But on the other hand the article, "Dear Students: Don't Let College Unplug Your Future", left me so pumped about being a part of this intangible world. I hate to think that I liked this piece by Gideon Burton because it fed my sub-conscious cravings for the virtual world. It made being on the internet and utilizing social media not only "not bad" but actually something positive and good.
This leads me into my first question: What is the author's intent and what are they trying to persuade the audience? I believe he wants us to view social media as a good thing and use it to benefit our education. His goal was to persuade us that a college education from a University is likely to be behind the times and the most current way to receive an education or be a part of the "real world" is to embrace the social media.
Sometimes during his argument, I felt as if he were mocking the idea of social media. He said things like:
"You don't evin haf to spel rite, though that doesn't hurt."
"Find those crazed teachers who have not been lobotomized by the moribund methodology of conventional learning and teaching."
-I think his blunt disapproval or maybe even attack on conventional learning makes him seem a little careless and almost enough to not know whether to take him seriously or not. Therefore his delivery was rather weak in this aspect but despite those moments, I would give him an A+ in delivery. He really appeals to his audience and gives interesting examples.

One last thing that may have weakened his argument or made him lose ethos was when he said:
"Trust the ones who give you their cell phone numbers..." He gives his students his cell phone number as he said previously in the passage, therefore he is essentially saying, "Trust me, and people like me."

He uses a lot of imagery, for example: (also an analogy)
"Treat your classes like you do your CDs- rip, trade, and burn the best tracks, deleting what doesn't fit in your playlist."

Gideon uses epicrisis when he recounts the story of trying to get social media into college curriculum and then just ends with, "So very chilling, but that is academia for you." The story pretty much spoke for itself. This is also evidence to his argument.

He also uses many hyperboles which solidify his stance:
"They can't help but kill the things that would bring your education to life. Oh, the humanities!"

He definitely used some pathos for me because I just got a blog so I could really relate to his story of picking an intern based on the contents of her blog. He emphasized the fact that there may no longer be resume but just your record of social media.

He made a good counter argument that I considered as well: the internet can be scary. Somehow, although there are unfortunate instances, he seemed to convince me that it is more important to have one then not to.

I also liked how he used interjections to give voice and make it entertaining which made the paper more appealing.

So is this article effective? I believe it was. It made me realize how important social media can be and it is something we should embrace. I feel like it adequately did that for me but I still have my own qualms, especially after reading the other articles.

This has become my stance:
I think we should embrace social media and use it for good in the world. We must be careful not to be consumed by it. Ultimately, the one thing I am worried about it our connection with other people. In my Sunday School lesson, I became enlightened with this idea when teaching about revelation. When we want to receive revelation sometimes we need to take a step back and become disconnected with all media so we can focus on what the Spirit is trying to communicate. So why would it be bad though if we communicated just through technology? Why does that feel wrong? How our Heavenly Father communicates is not through technology but rather through our hearts and we want to become like Him. So personal interaction is very important and I would agree that sometimes you can touch others hearts through the media but when we are there and personal, is when we can make a real impact so we can't forget this. Also the media can give us alternate identities in a way. In Pres. Monson's devotional to the BYU students he counseled us to "Remember who you are". The prophets are divinely inspired and usually see things coming before we know they will happen. This may be good advice for right now but I think it may be even more valuable in the future. We are Children of God and we mustn't forget.

Peer Review and Corrections

Five Corrections:
(Just as a side note...it may be a sweeping generalization to assume we even made five mistakes on our paper to start with but unfortunately, I am one of those who made five mistakes. ha)
1.
Wrong: Depending on the book’s price, it has a high potential to pay itself off in the self same year it is purchased.
-I reread this and though "self same" may have a hyphen between the words but selfsame is actually one word. 
Correct: Depending on the book’s price, it has a high potential to pay itself off in the selfsame year it is purchased.
2.
Wrong: I contemplated these high costs and other factors as well; such as many textbooks are thrown away when declined the opportunity to be sold back.
-The semicolon is improperly placed in the sentence.
Correct: I contemplated these high costs and other factors such as many textbooks are thrown away when declined the opportunity to be sold back.
3.
Wrong: It may be a slow to start process because of the money invested but soon it will actually be creating more profit than previously.
-There is no comma before the conjunction "but".
Correct: It may be a slow to start process because of the money invested, but soon it will actually be creating more profit than previously.
4.
Wrong: This is not something that we want to force on the students of BYU but rather it is an option.
 -Once again there is no comma before the conjunction "but".

Correct: This is not something that we want to force on the students of BYU, but rather it is an option.
 5.

Wrong: Also if we recycle, it almost makes it okay to keep buying the books, when it reality those resources are still being consumed at a high rate.

-I made a spelling error, I wrote "it reality" instead of "in reality" 

Correct: Also if we recycle, it almost makes it okay to keep buying the books, when in reality those resources are still being consumed at a high rate.

Opinion of Peer Review:

I actually really enjoyed the peer review. I think it is fun to tell people what you really think of their work with little consequences and a bit of tact of course. I was a little blunt on some but I felt like the comments were intended to improve their writing skills so ultimately it was beneficial. I have to say five comments may have been a bit excessive for each page. With that being said, it was helpful for those papers that may have needed five comments per page so it wasn't too marked up in comparison to others. I think if instead of doing 5 per page, maybe doing 12-18 total. It was a little frustrating that we couldn't correct some of the grammar just to help because I feel that is important in improving a paper. I have yet to write a half page comment per paper but I feel that too could be summed up in the 5 comments per page. I am grateful to hear what others have to say about my paper though so although time consuming, I feel that it is probably quite helpful. I have to be honest, I felt kind of like a teacher grading papers and I liked it haha. But I imagine it is much less enjoyable when there are like 200 papers to grade. Overall, I enjoyed the peer review and I hope the ideas I suggested are taken into consideration.