In the article “Plugged In,” Dan Kennedy attempts to persuade his readers into believing young adults do not pay attention to the news, and ultimately the world around them. During the year 2007, American citizens dealt with tremendous technological and political change: President Bush places thousand of troops in Iraq, the American military intervenes into Islamic militant territory, President Obama announces candidacy, Microsoft and Apple both release new operating systems, and numerous space shuttles landed and launched into space. With a rapidly changing environment, many, including Kennedy, felt as if young people did not consider the impact of world events. In turn, Kennedy worried society would become ill informed and would not be able
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The author examines how young adults choose to pay attention to social media, instead of news. Kennedy states, “Social-networking sites, especially MySpace and Facebook, have been enormously successful, with their mostly young users spending hours tweaking their profiles with photos, videos, blogs, and lists of their favorite musicians and movies.” Without substantial evidence supporting this claim, Kennedy unjustifiably labels young adults as egocentric and trifling. The author furthered this discourse by declaring young adults would read content if they “actually get to participate in it.” By taking Pauline Millard’s quote from the context of social media and applying it to global news, Kennedy assumed young adults would only care about current events if they could take ownership in it. Kennedy not only implied young adults do not care about serious matters, but also will only care if they are involved. The author supplements this argument by slyly dropping statistics about the media surrounding the Iraq war: “news interests…among young people was up slightly in 2004 and ’06, a likely reflection of worries over the war in Iraq.” Later reflecting the views of John Davidow, Kennedy explains news outlets cover the Iraq war often, because young adults fight in the war. One of the only mentions of young people paying attention to the …show more content…
First, Kennedy illuminated the differences between the older generation’s and the younger generation’s media intake; in turn, emphasizing on statistics that directs condemns the latter. Secondly, Kennedy exemplified the younger generation’s affinity to social media, without regard to the older generation’s vain interests. Lastly, Kennedy cunningly paints young people as destroyers of tradition. Employing dichotomous thinking and sly rhetorical devices, Kennedy attempted to create a contrast between generations to further his
The author examines how young adults choose to pay attention to social media, instead of news. Kennedy states, “Social-networking sites, especially MySpace and Facebook, have been enormously successful, with their mostly young users spending hours tweaking their profiles with photos, videos, blogs, and lists of their favorite musicians and movies.” Without substantial evidence supporting this claim, Kennedy unjustifiably labels young adults as egocentric and trifling. The author furthered this discourse by declaring young adults would read content if they “actually get to participate in it.” By taking Pauline Millard’s quote from the context of social media and applying it to global news, Kennedy assumed young adults would only care about current events if they could take ownership in it. Kennedy not only implied young adults do not care about serious matters, but also will only care if they are involved. The author supplements this argument by slyly dropping statistics about the media surrounding the Iraq war: “news interests…among young people was up slightly in 2004 and ’06, a likely reflection of worries over the war in Iraq.” Later reflecting the views of John Davidow, Kennedy explains news outlets cover the Iraq war often, because young adults fight in the war. One of the only mentions of young people paying attention to the …show more content…
First, Kennedy illuminated the differences between the older generation’s and the younger generation’s media intake; in turn, emphasizing on statistics that directs condemns the latter. Secondly, Kennedy exemplified the younger generation’s affinity to social media, without regard to the older generation’s vain interests. Lastly, Kennedy cunningly paints young people as destroyers of tradition. Employing dichotomous thinking and sly rhetorical devices, Kennedy attempted to create a contrast between generations to further his