Twitter Rhetorical Analysis

The Rhetorical Aspects of Twitter Social Media is prominently used, especially with millennials and the generations beneath them. Our physical world is not the only reality anymore. Now, there is a whole other world living online. With social media becoming more and more popular, more and more people are living a second life on the internet. Twitter, for example, is very widely known and used; and while scrolling through a Twitter feed, it is not hard to pick out rhetorical communication within people’s individual posts and conversations amongst each other. A common type of tweet, a “subtweet” is an abbreviation for the term, “subliminal tweet.” Subtweeting is defined as making a tweet about another person without actually “tagging” them in …show more content…
If the reader does not even see the tweet or realize that it is about them, there really is no reason to compose the post or tweet at all. The reader is the one that is affected, so if there is no reader, there is no reaction. Often times though, a subliminal tweet may affect more than one person, and there is always a chance of the message affecting someone that the writer had not even planned for it too. Reaching a certain audience is all part of rhetorical communication through social media. Sometimes, the things people say and how they say them come across differently to the people that listen to or read their message. These elements and more all play a role in how a message is understood by the …show more content…
Pathos is the emotional appeal of rhetoric. Social media in general can be a very emotionally-draining place. Whether it be positively or negatively, the words, pictures, and messages posted on social media websites consistently have the potential to have a significant effect on the viewer’s emotions. When someone sees something extremely awesome or terribly sad online, their mood can literally be changed in a matter of seconds. A few months ago, Kim and Kanye West and Taylor Swift brought up more drama between them, because Taylor became angry at Kanye for incorporating some nasty lyrics about her in one of his songs. There were subtweets made by both parties, and there was a vast amount of publicity and posts made online about the situation. Specifically, Kim made a post about Taylor reading “Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!” followed by some snake emojis. Obviously, this tweet was meant to compare Taylor Swift to a snake because of the bad history between her and Kim’s husband, Kanye West. Kim’s tweet was trying to appeal to Taylor’s emotions in a negative way. Most people would be very offended by a tweet like this that was intended for them, and that is usually the author’s purpose: to get an emotional reaction out of the intended