Tim Kreider The Busy Trap Analysis

Americans are some of the busiest people in the world. From the 18th century to the 19th century, the average citizen only had a few activities, such as eating, sleeping, and farming. With the industrial revolution of the late 1800s, Americans feared the new technology because they thought that machines would obsolete the human race. However, they found new activities and occupied themselves more than before. For example, they could now work in factories and retail stores while learning advanced subjects in college. Recently, the information revolution changed the lives of Americans forever. In Tim Kreider’s “The ‘Busy’ Trap,” he criticizes the busyness of Americans through exemplifying, narrating, and comparing and contrasting. To criticize America’s busy behavior, Tim Kreider provides brief examples throughout his essay. By exemplifying, Tim Kreider narrows down his arguments to concrete examples explaining what he specifically meant by their busy behavior. For example, he criticizes American students for overworking themselves at school by simultaneously maintaining a perfect grade point average and attending several extracurricular activities (Kreider 381). If Tim Kreider had not provided this example, he would remain ambiguous, and his opponents could misunderstand his …show more content…
Exemplifying elaborates Tim Kreider’s criticisms because it narrows down his broad arguments into concrete examples. As a form of anecdotal evidence, he narrates his personal experience with his busy friends in order to prove the existence of the typical busy person. By comparing and contrasting his busy life experience with that of his slow-paced outdoor life, he creates an illusion where the former is more stressful than real American lives. While he did not cite any formal study on the daily routines of Americans, Tim Kreider’s rhetorical strategies will convince most people reading his