Digital Rhetoric and how our lifestyles reflect our social media usage
This chapter went into great detail to explain how the previous uses of rhetoric in history have evolved and changed with us as a human race. Our planet is losing species but gaining words. Evolution has continued in different forms, with different slang and dialects rising and falling in popularity as populations of successful animals may have exploded or been annihilated by natural factors. Our language evolves as our society does. If different age groups use different social media, that means they are getting a different version of the information. While on Instagram and Snapchat you are primarily dealing with pictures and words, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook have the option to write down a thought and post it without the picture, allowing different kinds of posts to be made.
This could not be predicted by the philosophers who created the concept of rhetoric and what it means. The ability to share a thought or an image at lightspeed to millions of people allows communication to happen so much faster than what our ancestors were used to. The rate at which ideas evolve and change and improve also increases. The internet is the omega point for all of the topics we talk about in the first chapter on digital Rhetoric. Individuals are able to create their own following and monetize it. We no longer have to worship kings, governments, religions, or anything that we do not want to. Instead, we now have the choice to support our friends and family, and community directly. I see the internet as a way to subvert every institution that has been built in the last 100, 1000, or even 2000 years. Right now we have celebrities and corporations dominating the space. This is what is expected though since they have existing platforms that they can leverage.
Our generation is the first to grow up in this environment. I think that competitive advantage is instilled into this age group, while older generations use the internet as a tool, not as an extension of self. Our language and how we interact with the world is intertwined with the social media we use and the generation we are apart of. My parents use facebook. My brother, sister and I use instagram. We interact with different personalities, and different communities. We are seeing the evolution of these communities in real time, competing with the number of users like animal populations competed in the wild for resources. The way people receive their information affects the way that they interact with the world. It also affects what they know, and what problems are on their mind.