Today, the average American teenager spends up to 10 hours a day in front of screens, whether TVs, computers or increasingly, their smartphones. The increase in screen time correlates almost exactly with advances in smartphone technology, as today’s cell phones allow their users to instantly check their social media feeds, surf the internet and sometimes do both at once. Given the inescapable presence of technology in our society, the effects of our favorite electronic devices on the way we interact with one another has become a relevant topic of significant interest. During Penn State’s 2017 convocation, anthropology professor Nina Jablonski requested that students “put away” their cell phones throughout their four years at Penn State. She claimed that while technology serves as our primary means of socialization, it can also isolate us from new people and experiences. In contrast to Jablonski, Verizon appeals to the potential for technology to connect complete strangers, in an advertisement marketing its services to millennials while advocating opposite views. Both pieces of rhetoric attempt to reach young adults using current cultural references, creating a personal connection by example and appealing to their hopes and expectations.
Young people, the intended audience of the two pieces of rhetoric, have a distinct set of values and preferences, and with youth generally comes a skepticism of condescending adults unfamiliar with their culture. At the outset of their presentations, Jablonski and Verizon seek to establish credibility with their audience by demonstrating that they “get” millennials. Jablonski immediately follows her request by clarifying that she does not oppose the use of technology or discount its advantages, but rather opposes its excessive application. For many millennials, the stereotype of the elderly relative annoyed with today’s kids and their screen addictions has undeniable currency, which compels Jablonski to separate herself from the group. Throughout her convocation speech, she makes reference to the lure of Snapchat and other social media apps on the typical student’s cell phone. Thus, she appears to sympathize with the struggles of her audience as they experience constant distractions from their phones.
Verizon also deploys common cultural references in the service of selling its products. The ad depicts a group of young friends waiting for food at a food truck, but struggling to get a data signal. They meet a young man who takes the opportunity to inform his new friends about Verizon’s largest nationwide 4G network. Although considered lower class for much of the 20th century, food trucks have experienced a resurgence in popularity among millennials looking to enjoy authentic ethnic cuisine and fast food delivery. However, the friends can’t enjoy their food properly without the signal necessary to post their meals to social media, an all too common problem for millennials on the go. In the ad, Verizon attempts to relate to its audience by indicating that it understands their lives and has the solutions they need. Instead of acting as the bland, outdated corporation, Verizon is the fresh, dynamic business in tune with the demands of young people. The average phone service user today isn’t bound by a landline, but remains carries their device in their pocket. Verizon takes the rhetorical situation into account, knowing that millennials want service that complements their mobile lifestyles, symbolized by the food truck in the background.
Anecdotes and examples of ten enhance a rhetor’s message by demonstrating the validity of their statements using relatable characters their audiences want to emulate. This strategy appeals to the logical side of the mind, offering guarantees that the speaker’s claims are not just unsubstantiated theory, but practical advice. To remind students of what they could accomplish at Penn State unburdened by their devices, Jablonski tells the story of “Sparks,” a physics undergraduate who began as a lab assistant and eventually went on to conduct original research. She quotes him as saying it’s “important to start slow and absorb information,” a rebuke to the internet’s information saturation. While hearing the same advice from an older adult would generate eye rolls, the messenger lends more credibility to the message. Sparks, a millennial raised in the same technology-rich environment, found his passion by relearning the old ways of processing information and asking questions. Since not all freshmen at commencement have interests in STEM fields, she diversifies the appeal of her speech by also including examples of opportunities at Penn State available to students of every field. The fact that others in their same position have achieved success and belonging at Penn State reassures students that they can do the same if they only look beyond their screens.
Likewise, Verizon presents its audience with an idealized version of themselves in the form of the characters who appear in the ad. The friends dining at the food truck are well-dressed and enjoying life in the city as young people with few responsibilities. The only thing that prevents them from enjoying that life fully is their lack of data service. They have lives similar to those of the company’s target demographic, and they need Verizon’s 4G LTE network to complete their lives. The interloper in the group represents the generic everyman, the nice guy who gets along with everybody he meets. While he begins as an outsider, he works his way into the center of attention with ease. His knowledge of Verizon’s services allows him to gain access to the group of friends, implying that people gravitate to those have the technological connections that serve as the lifeblood of millennial society. To venture from the network of cell phone users constitutes social suicide, since the friends’ panic over their lack of service reflects the modern fear of missing out.
The two rhetors tap into commonplaces held among young people today about the kinds of lives they expect to lead and utilize kairos to construct their arguments. In Jablonski’s case, the audience consists of students in the unique position of belonging to the social media generation and preparing for a new phase in their lives. They are venturing into unknown territory, a situation which inspires either fear of change or great expectations for what they can accomplish on their own. She specifically addresses the universal human impulse to retreat back to the familiar-in our age, the world of social media. However, she follows by arguing that by sticking with the tried and true, people miss exciting new things happening around them. As newly independent people, freshman college students have an unprecedented opportunity to mold and define their own identities. Jablonski tells them that they have the power within them to accomplish whatever they want independent of their devices, so long as they put in the effort. Employing wordplay, she inverts the commonplace that cell phones and computers represent the best of human creation. The human mind, she says, is “the original supercomputer” which does not need to rely on a second-rate replica. After years of waiting to leave home, her audience finally has a greater degree of freedom to determine its individual paths and Jablonski’s words of empowerment plays into their desires.
Verizon lures its millennial audience by promising the constant connectivity they expect as young Americans and often take for granted until it becomes unavailable. Today, a rising number of municipalities are offering free wifi service on the grounds that an internet connection is a human right. Non-governmental organizations working in third-world countries consistently list expanding internet access among their goals. According to modern logic, internet is the means by which the world conducts its business, so to deprive a person of the internet is to effectively cut them off from the world. Although Jablonski frames technology as in barrier to human relationships, Verizon embraces the idea that the permeation of technology in every area of our lives makes them better. The juxtaposition of the friends struggling with their useless phones and the cheerful young man confirms millennials’ assumption that they need a signal to enjoy themselves. Most millennials can empathize with the scenario and would never want to repeat the experience. The content of the ad establishes that rather than being self-absorbed brats, millennials have every reason to want to stay connected.
The current millennial generation faces an essential choice. It must decide whether to embrace technology wholeheartedly or keep it at a healthy distance, a shift that will define its relationship with the world. As their generational predecessors try to convince them of following either path, consistent patterns appear in their rhetoric and the ways in which they engage millennials. In their respective appeals, Jablonski and Verizon first display their qualifications for speaking to young people by showing a familiarity with the hallmarks of youth culture. This conveys a willingness to understand the audience rather than talking down to them about their elders’ learned wisdom. However, the generational differences between the speakers and their audiences can only be bridged so far by dropping cultural references. To better connect to millennials, both invoke images and anecdotes of young people that support their arguments. The two pieces of rhetoric also take advantage of kairos and different commonplaces held among millennials. The dialogue around the role of technology in 21st century life reflects the state of millennials, both in terms of the culture they have built and the generational identity they have yet to mold.
