Composition in Two Genres was my favorite assignment in this course. I liked the idea of being creative with your topic and expressing your thought in that artwork. I was motivated to do this assignment because I projected in my head how it is going to turn out. I had high expectations, and I hoped I was going to realized what I imagined. There were many differences between this assignment and others such as the genres of artwork. I loved that we could choose between many genres and create one that fits our topic. However, I also noticed that I was not rushed doing this assignment. Usually, when I performed other assignments I was stressed and rushed which made me not focus on the writing. Despite the differences, Composition in Two Genres was significant due to its structure. I wanted to choose genres that my audience would be willing to see. I wanted something engaging and creative for my audience because adolescents can be delicate sometimes. My choices of genres were affected by my audience because I considered many factors such as location, setting, pictures, etc. The rhetorical strategies I used to engage with my audience is pathos and logos. The reason I used pathos is that I wanted my audience to feel the need to stop the excessive use of social media. I did this through my meme where I introduced a new illusion of being financed by social media for the times spent on it. I also used logos in my second genre since I provided statistics to express the reasoning for my topic. Overall, I think that composition in the two genres was an amazing opportunity to expresss some new ideas and our creativity.

My intended audience consists of adolescents, as well as, adults affected by Social Media. The primary characteristics are teens from 13-20, as well as adults from 20-25. I want my audience to understand the problem that they are facing and the consequences of excessive social media. The audience should feel the wrongness of SM by not feeling guilty for using it. To make such a sentence true, I want to make a meme that is hilarious but also has indirect meaning to it. For instance, I would say, “If I had a dollar for …”, or “Now Vs. Then”. By looking at these memes, my audience would further think about the change they want to make because Social Media does not provide you financially, however it takes your time away to do something productive or fun. I think my rhetorical strategy proposes logos since my genre would appeal to logic or reason. I also want to make sure my audience is not negatively targeted by making another subway advertisement with facts, demonstrations, and visuals. In this case, I will use logos and pathos for my rhetorical strategies. As explained in my potential genre proposal, I want to make a poster as a subway advertisement. The time should be August or September since that is the time of back to school. In the poster, I will provide facts that address the negative impacts of SM. The use of logos will determine the logical argument of excessive social media so that my audience can understand and feel my poster. I will also use ethos to engage with my audience by categorizing beliefs or ideas of social media. For instance, writing a short sentence from a real person that talked about their negative impacts of social media. However,  appealing to emotions will allow the audience to understand the consequences and feel the need to change or slightly decrease their use of the internet. 

In my research-based essay, I addressed the negative impact of social media on adolescents. I would like to further inform my audience of the negative consequences of social media by using visuals. I think that visuals are an important part of understanding.  I feel like a lot of people prefer visuals more than long written work. For my genres, I would like to consider four examples such as poster, PowerPoint presentation, subway advertisement, or meme.  The reason I want to make a poster is that I can inform my audience of the consequences of social media by using visual art and some spoken words. I would place a big image of the “broken” brain/mind in the center of the poster, to draw attention to the mental health issues caused by social media. On the top center, I would put real quotes from real people affected by social media with ream comments from SM such as “They said I look fat”. At the bottom, I would consider using some statistics about suicide, depression, and anxiety rates. I also think that a similar project would also complement the subway advertisement. I would focus on the facts and put something creative to catch attention. Although the similarities, the PowerPoint presentation would straightforwardly inform the audience, with facts, pictures, and videos.  However, I feel like a subway advertisement is a great way to reach the specific intended audience since almost every person of every age rides the train. Another genre I thought of using is a meme. I feel like memes are a great way to catch someone’s attention, especially something that is relatable. I would consider putting a hilarious image with some text that complements my research topic. Although the implementation of a humorous aspect, I would try to make the tone serious so the audience is aware of the negative effects of social media. 

After researching, I have found some sources that I think will be useful for my essay. This report contains the impotence and a brief description of my collected sources. 

The first article I researched is called “The impact of heavy and disordered use of games and social media on adolescents’ psychological, social, and school functioning”. I found this article with the help of professor Harris, in Gale Academic OneFile. In this text, the authors explain the impact of the enormous usage of social media in the development of adolescents. It also mentions the “Conceptualization of ofIGD and SMD”, which suggests that it causes loss of control, preoccupation, problems, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and coping/escapism. The text indicated the negative consequences of IGD and SMD such as loneliness, depression, low self-esteem, poorer school grades, and lower psychological well-being. I believe this study report helps my claim since it talks about the physiological and social impact of social media on adolescents. It is a study report that uses examples from real-life persons, which supports my argument entirely. 

One source that I am considering using, but about which I am still unsure is called “The Social Media Disorder and Ostracism in Adolescents: (OSTRACA- SM Study).” I found this article in Gale Academic OneFile. Credibility can be determined with the bibliography that it has on the button of the essay.  This article provides a research report conducted on young people and their usage of social media. The article tries to define the risk factors of SMD and ostracism in adolescents and analyze the association between the two. It is a detailed study report, where all occasions are taken into consideration, such as adolescents who do not work, those who have a single parent, those who have bad grades, etc. I feel like this article is important because it shows the factual report of social media use by adolescents, but at the same time does not provide enough argumentative reasons for the impact of social media, that is why I feel uncertain. 

One source I  found while conducting my research but have discarded is called “How social media affects the mental health of teenagers”. The article identified some issues that social media has brought to adolescents such as sleep deprivation, low self-esteem, face news portraying fake photoshopped persona, etc. The article also talks about how to limit the time of social media and gives suggestions such as restrict access, monitor, etc. The reason I am discarding this source is its credibility since it is not a peer-reviewed article. I found this article while I was searching on google to have a general idea of the problems/ impacts of social media. 

The last source I found is called “Pilot data supporting an attachment‐based theory of adolescent social media use”. I found this article while searching in the BMCC Library. This article is located in the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. This article is a pilot data report on the use of social media by adolescents. It reports new studies and changes in adolescents’ behavior over the years. The article suggests that social media is making adolescents behave a certain way. Adolescents seem to care mote for social comparison and feedback‐seeking, which results in serious consequences for the child and adolescent mental health. I think this article is useful for my essay since it determined the causes of social media on adolescents and further explores the changes in behavior over the years. 

I am unsure as to what my essay research is missing, however, I do think some videos of adolescents speaking up about social media use would be helpful to watch, even though that would not be an obsolete source.

Ergun, Gul. “The Social Media Disorder and Ostracism in Adolescents: (OSTRACA- SM Study)”. Vol. 52, Issue 2). The Eurasian Journal of Medicine. AVES.  June 2020 

Venta, Amanda, Harmon, Jennifer. “Pilot data supporting an attachment‐based theory of adolescent social media use”. The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.  April 2019

Burch, Kelly. “How social media affects the mental health of teenagers”. Insider. March 16, 2020.  https://www.insider.com/how-does-social-media-affect-teenagers

Eijnden Van Den, Regina. “The impact of heavy and disordered use of games and social media on adolescents’ psychological, social, and school functioning”. Gale Academic One File. September 2018

Considering the feedback I got for my Topic Reflection, I decided to narrow my question down to “What are the social and psychological effects of excessive social media use on adolescents?”. After careful consideration of the research reflection, I found it important to research about the social and psychological effects of extreme use of social media by adolescents. As I stated in my topic reflection, younger generations are using social media drastically more in the last decade. Such situations have caused many emotional issues in adolescents and made them more insecure, anti-social, and addicted to the internet. This question interests me because I feel like younger people are living in a fake world and the internet is tricking them to believe everything they see. I personally see the impact social media has on me. When I watch a sad video, it impacts my mood and I think about that all day. When I see an ad for some food, I want to buy it. It is simply addictive. However, as I mentioned in my topic reflection, the documentary “The Social Dilemma” has influenced me to rethink the usage of social media. The documentary shows the visual description of how addictive and manipulated the internet can be, and how people of my age are being tricked and controlled by big tech companies. A large population of people urgently trying to get “likes” is young teenagers. The fact that young people are anxious about how many people “like” their Instagram post, is terrifying. 

Timeline: In the next two weeks, I will have completed my research for secondary sources, so I have this week and the other to research more about the impact of social media on adolescents. I also found some additional articles that I will include in my bibliography for further use. 

My intended audience is mostly young adolescents age 12-17 since they are mostly from the point of view and are newly introduced to the internet. I want to be a resource for them to reduce their amount of internet usage. I want to introduce new ideas and reflect new perspectives on the negative impact of social media on teenagers with my research. For this essay, I decided to use two modal essays that resonate with my research topic. 

My paper will be modeling the article/study report called ”The Psychological Effects of Social Media on Teens” published by Newport Academy. Such an essay is related to my topic since it explains the psychological effect of social media such as sleep deprivation, lack of physical activity, and cyberbullying. This article displays a study report of 13,000 teens over three years of social media usage. They also self-reported that there were mood swings, anxiety, depression, etc. It also points out how cyberbullying is a lead cause of anxiety, depression, loneliness, suicide, and depression of adolescents. 

Bibliography:

Minow, Nell. “The Social Dilemma: Review”. Roger Ebert Publications. September 8, 2020. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-social-dilemma-movie-review-2020

Burch, Kelly. “How social media affects the mental health of teenagers”. Insider. March 16, 2020.  https://www.insider.com/how-does-social-media-affect-teenagers

My initial research question is “What are the effects of social media on adolescents?”. I want to write about social media impact on our lives. I believe it is really important because we live in a world where everyone in social media is exposed to cyber-bullying, depression, suicide, fake news, rumor spreading, unrealistic views of other people’s lives, and peer pressure. I want to further research the impact of social networks that are negatively affecting adolescent’s lives, increasing suicide rates, and depression. The use of social media by adolescents has dramatically increased over the decades. Along with that, it has caused many problems in society. Today, you are judged if you do not have an Instagram account and peer-pressured to post your lives on social media. I also feel like this social issue is not discussed frequently, and people are used to living in a world like this. However, it is important to emphasize where the problem is coming and try to solve it. I also understand the positive advantages of social networking, however, the negative impacts overdo the problem. Also, the overuse of social media affects people’s sleep schedules.  To sum up, I decided to choose this question because I recently watched a documentary about how social media impacts our lives, called “The Social Dilemma”. I was touched and horrified by this documentary because it explored the ideas of financial gain through the rise of using social networks. 

I believe writing is a beautiful way of expressing your thoughts in a paper when sometime no one wants to hear. I was eager to write about abortion and learn so many things along the way. It felt like becoming an expert in the field. At first, I was rushed to find the sources which I thought would make things more difficult but it turned out perfectly. The rhetorical analysis helped me understand what the author is trying to project and inform. I really liked the feedback part. I received feedback from a student and the professor, which was very helpful since I was not knowledgeable of some recurring mistakes I made throughout the paper. This contradicted what I knew and what I learned when writing this essay. I learned that I tend to write very long sentences that then make my argument unclear. I also thought it was really stressful because the essay requires a lot of focus and time. It took me three or four days to finish this essay when normally it takes only one. The strategies I took were bullet points, shortcuts, explaining one thing at the time, googling questions. I would analyze the article into all categories of rhetorical analysis. Also, something I did that was helpful was, googling some questions about rhetorical analysis to have as a reference when writing.  The process was great, but I always felt in stress to finish the assignments since the class is asynchronous. I would say the process worked for me, although I felt slightly rushed when writing which made things stressful for me. 

Open-Web Source

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/07/30/new-laws-deepen-state-differences-over-abortion 

The article “New Laws Deepen State Differences Over Abortion” talks about the new laws that have garnered media attention and that has had a “salutary” effect by educating the public, which explained a lot about the opposing opinions evidenced by fake news by society. That article specifies the differences and arguments of states that have restrictive abortion laws and those that they don’t. For instance, New York, Rhode Island, Illinois, etc, have intended to defend women’s rights with law. On the county, Georgia, North Decoda, Mississippi, Missouri, etc, have permitted their political and religious beliefs into deciding for women’s rights. However, Vestal points out the political polarization and division within those states, that Democratic-led states are in favor of women’s rights, and Republic-led states are not.

Magazine Source

 https://www.vox.com/2019/5/16/18628002/abortion-ohio-alabama-georgia-law-bill-details 

In the article, Abortion in America” by Anna North, explains the 10 common facts about abortion in America. The article contains useful, factual information such as the percentage of women that will have an abortion by 45, which is 23.7%. North explains that there was a decline in abortion rates over the decade, and most women who obtain abortion already have kids. The article informs about four states that have restricted abortion rights to women, such as Alabama, Missouri, North Dakota, and Kentucky. However, Roe V. Wade has played an important role in such cause because most of the passed bills are aimed at such landmark. 

Newspaper

https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-justices-voice-clashing-views-as-they-weigh-louisiana-abortion-law-11583345306?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=11

The magazine article “ Supreme Court Justices Voice Clashing Views as They Weigh Louisiana Abortion Law” by Jess Bravin and Brent Kendall, talk about the recent restrictive abortion laws in Louisiana and the struggles that women of that state are facing such as leaving the state with one clinic because they want “to bring abortion regulations in line”. However, Justice Alito claimed that the clinics hold a conflict of interest with women seeking an abortion. After days of arguing, the prosecutor wanted to admit the closure of the two out of three abortion clinics. However, there was a 30 miles radius to access abortion clinics and it is the first step to United States moving forward, as women now have better community health care toward abortion. 

Peer-reviewed Source

https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=22230&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=3&docId=GALE%7CA629773631&docType=Report&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-MOD1&prodId=AONE&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA629773631&searchId=R9&userGroupName=cuny_ccny&inPS=true

This peer-reviewed text talks about systemic and socio-cultural barriers that women of Georgia face limiting access to abortion services. The text consolidates abortion stigma that causes stress to women because of fear of judgment, isolation, and decision. The article suggests that religion has also played an important role in the state’s restrictive laws and the lack of resources in most of the Southern states of the United States. However, the text provides a lot of case studies about abortion rates and in-depth interviews of different resources and reasons such as religion, legislative system, and a mix of “sociodemographic characteristics”

“Social issues are often a consequence of factors extending beyond an individual’s control”, is the description of a social issue. Among numerous social issues, one that interests me is abortion. For years, abortion has been in hands of a government’s policies, a man’s choice, and never in hands of a women’s body. Although the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roe V. Wade in 1973, women faced repeated challenges in obtaining a legal abortion that also follows them to this day. Many states have demanded restrictions and detailed limitations when attaining abortions that contribute to other social issues that society faces today such as suicide, death because of “illegal” and unsafe abortion, the abuse, etc. Over the years, women faced many difficulties in obtaining an abortion because of limited restrictions made by government policies. Women have been a victim of the system that chooses for their bodies. I deeply think that abortion is a women’s right and nobody should obstruct them to make such a decision. I feel like abortion should not be hard to obtain, and nobody should decide for a person’s body because it is their fundamental right to choose their path without any excessive government restriction. However, the importance of deciding what to do with your body is a priority to live an independent life and not feel suppressed by a system, therefore, I believe that the decision to undergo an abortion is upon women’s rights. Moreover, the legalization of abortion contributes to a decrease in other social problems in society such as foster care, adoption, and such a solution will bring sustainability in the modern world. In conclusion, I want to research more about the policies and history of abortion. The illegalness, Supreme Court Decision, facts, causes, pro-life and pro-choice debate, and solutions of abortion are in the interest of mine that I would like to further investigate. 

I have chosen to analyze “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” created by Rob Bliss Creative, featuring 24-year-old actress Shoshana Roberts. The author of this text is Rob Bliss, who is credible of his creation due to the fact that the video has reached 49 million views on YouTube. However,  Shoshana is the featuring actor. 

Rhetorical Situation/Exigence: The author of the video is responding to the street harassment of women while choosing to represent the ultimate cause of hidden cameras, and let the audience know the struggle women face every day, which is catcalling. The video is suggesting the reality of the consequences of a woman walking by in New York City streets, and the video brings awareness of the difficult times that women face in our society. 

Audience: The target audience for this text is masculine men due to the fact that it shows men committing such actions. It is a source to make men see their reflection and make them aware of the causes they are making. The author’s assumptions to the audience are that they are not knowledgeable of making those actions and that this video is a reflection of themselves, so they can see the damages they have done so they could stop doing so in the future.

However, I also think that there is another audience that the author points out. In this case, women and society as a whole. The author tries to point out the social issue of street harassment of women is unconsidered and not discussed. As evidence is the woman herself, walking by. 

Purpose: The main purpose of this text is to capture street harassment happening in the real world in the greatest city in the world, and let the watchers explore what it is like being street harassed. However another idea of challenging the traditional narrative of women being harassed because of their looks. In response to that misconception, Roberts was wearing black jeans and a T-shirt, opposing that women are a subject of street harassment despite what they wear. 

Genre: The genre of this text is the informal informational video that has a goal. The reason I say is informal is because it does not contain a script or use of graphics, however, it does have the narrator, which is Shoshana Roberts.

The Stance:  Although the author is not particularly presented in the video, the stance of the author is ultimately altered due to the fact that Bliss has chosen to share the theme of street harassment of women. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A