Trevor's RCL Blog

The basic idea behind this ad is to encourage people to not try and teach people via phone who they know are driving as it’s dangerous for the driver. The message says “Don’t talk while she drives”.

Effective elements:

• The message says “Don’t talk while she drives”. The fact the the person he is talking to is a female might suggest that it may be his wife or at least a loved one, which makes the viewer think about the loved ones in their life. This has a strong appeal to pathos.
• The blood splatter is also very effective. It is fairly graphic, it catches the eye, and it forces the viewer to really think about what it would be like to have a loved one die or be injured in a car accident. It doesn’t sugar-coat the situation in the slightest.
• The fact that the blood is splattering through the phone also forces people to think about how harmful a tragedy like this is to all those involved, not just the actual driver.
• This particular ad also takes a different approach than many other ads which try to dissuade people from using phones while driving. Rather than being directed at drivers themselves, this is directed at everyone who contacts people who are driving and forces them to think about the risk they might be putting those people in.

I wouldn’t call myself a perfectionist, but I am the kind of person to worry about each minute detail of everything I do, who mulls over every little decision. I’m the kind of person to spend a half hour going back and forth about which font is better for a powerpoint. I’m the kind of person to ask a friend a million questions about a homework assignment to make sure I’m doing it right. Often times, these are the things that bother me and that I become obsessed with the most: the small things.

All throughout my life, whether it be in regards to a test, a piece of writing, or even a font selection, people have told me to not worry so much. They say things like “In the grand scheme of things, it’s not really a big deal”. I always tried to take their advice, however, with little to no success. I often ended up feeling stupid for worrying about things that I was told were insignificant or unimportant.

It wasn’t until one spring evening during my senior year, while talking with a close friend of mine, that I realized that had been mislead. “I really need to get a job this summer. I need money”, he said. “What do you need money for?” I asked, knowing that he had never had a job before and that his parents didn’t mind occasionally giving him money. Without thinking, I jokingly repeated one of the phrases I had so often been told. “You don’t need a job. You’ve got money. You know, there are starving kids in Africa. You’ve got it pretty good”. My friend gave me a puzzled, yet angry glare, and I’ll never forget the point that he proceeded to make and how it changed the way I viewed my problems . “So what?” he snapped back. “There are also a bunch of rich people in the world who just bought a new Lamborghini and a five million dollar home. By your own logic, you should never be happy because so many people are better off than you”.

What he said resonated with me. It made me realize that my problems, everyone’s problems, are all relative to our own lives. I’m not rich, but I’m also not starving; I was just a middle class, white, suburban high school student. Relative to my life, worrying about a grade on a paper or or about homework isn’t all that stupid. I should never be made to feel like my problems are insignificant, even if they seem small to other people. Instead of trying to ignore the smaller issues and trying to convince myself that they don’t matter, it’s healthier and more productive to simply work through them. It’s for that reason that I believe in “sweating the small stuff”.  

For my Civic Issues blog I will be discussing police brutality and other issues related to the police.

For my specialty blog I will be doing video game reviews, specifically targeted at people who don’t know much about games but are interested in starting to play them.

Trevor Collins

Lori Bedell

Rhetoric and Civic Life

7 November 2014

Choosing Childfree

There is no love like the love a parent has for their child; there is nothing more rewarding than seeing this child grow and become their own person; the choice to have a baby is the best choice you will ever make. These ideas are some that have been ingrained into our culture and are generally not challenged. It’s a widely accepted idea that all children are the epitome of a happy, successful life. Many people would say that grandchildren are the greatest gift you could give your parents. The response to the announcement of “We are having a baby” is always an applause, cheers of happiness and “Yay”s providing the news isn’t delivered by teenagers. All of these notions are some that really were not having their opposing sides represented; at least not until now. In the last 20 years, more and more couples have started to think about the true implications of having a child and less about these culturally ingrained ideas. According to Time: Money, over these past 20 years, the amount of couples planning on having kids has decreased from what was previously 78% of partners to about 42% (Davidson). However, this isn’t to say that more people are simply planning on not having kids; they’re following through with these plans, and apparently have been for a long time. Over the past 40 years, both the population growth rate and fertility rates for the entire world have halved (Suzuki). Last year in the U.S., fertility rates hit an all-time-low for women under 30 having their first child (Nasser). This trend of less and less people having children is becoming increasingly prevalent, and the world is likely going to feel many repercussions of this in the near future. But what are these repercussions? And why is this shift happening in the first place, specifically in the U.S.? For reasons relating to economic, cultural and social changes,  a shift is occurring in which less and less people are deciding to take on the responsibility of having a child.

The first and likely the largest proponent of this trend is relating to the economy. According to Time: Money, the decrease in the number of couples planning on having children decreasing to 42% from 78% isn’t necessarily because less people want kids, but rather because they feel like their “economic stars [won’t] align to make it happen” (Davidson). According to estimates made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost of raising a child for a middle-income family is currently at about $245,000, which is a sum of money that many people aren’t feeling capable of spending now, or even in the future (Hicken). This figure also excludes the cost of college, which is currently at, on average, about $23,000 for state schools and $45,000 for private schools (“What’s the Price Tag”). This price tag is currently very dissuading to chose considering becoming parents, especially considering many people consider the cost of education to be rather outrageous in the first place. Now, to millennials looking towards the future, the cost of raising a child, including tuition, is even less appealing because of how quickly college costs are raising. Over the past 10 years, the price of college has nearly doubled, meaning that those who are looking at having children now will be facing college costs that are three to four times what they are now if we extrapolate this data (Kurtzlaben). More potential parents are realizing this harsh reality than ever before, and are deciding they simply can’t afford the nearly $300,00 investment. However, this is obviously not the only aspect of the economy that is causing people to not have kids. According to an article published by Princeton University, there is a direct relationship between recessionary conditions and fertility rates in women. It is common knowledge that the U.S. economy hasn’t been doing very well since the last recession. According to the article, a one-percent increase in unemployment in the age group of 20-24 results in the loss of six conceptions per one thousand women. This conception loss increases through age ranges, with 40 year old women losing about 14.2 conceptions per one percent unemployment (Huber). Recession and poor economic conditions create an environment in which having a child becomes less of a default action of married couples and more of a financial decision. This is why the current U.S economy is simply not conducive to having children, and a large portion of the reasoning behind why the country, and the world as a whole, are seeing these falling fertility numbers. However, they are not the only reason.

A very important and often not-so obvious factor playing a large role in this shift is the changing role of women within society. It’s no secret that over the past several decades, gender roles have started to be put into question more than ever before. In the current day and age, where women are nearing equal treatment to men, or have already achieved it depending on who you ask, the traditional role of the stay-at-home mother is becoming less prevalent as more women find themselves in the workforce or the world of business Over the past 40 years or so, the number of women in the U.S. civilian workforce increased by about 40 million (“Facts Over Time”). However, the trend of less women having kids isn’t purely linked to their newfound career roles. As a matter of fact, what research has found is that the women that are starting to choose to not have children are actually those with the highest Intelligent Quotients, or IQs (Walshe). According to a study that was conducted on this phenomenon, it was found that the desire to reproduce actually diminishes by 25% for each additional 15 IQ points a women has (Styles). The reasons that smarter women don’t seem to want children, though, are varied. Many of them, being considered more “intelligent” tend to have more rigorous work schedules, and so they just don’t see the time. In parallel with this, census data has shown that there is a link between not having children and having a higher education. Other women simply say that they just don’t have the desire to have children (Walshe). One particular quote, however, form social scientist, Dr. Nattavudh Powdthavee, seems to capture the essence of these women’s’ decision. “Parents spend much of their time attending to the very core processes of childcare: problems at school, cooking, laundry”; “It’s these small but negative experiences that are more likely to impact on our day-to-day levels of happiness and life satisfaction (Styles). While women’s changing roles are important to this shift, this idea of happiness and life satisfaction that Powdthavee talks about also seems to be playing a key role in diminishing fertility.

It is undeniable that the world around us has become very media-centered. It’s incredibly hard to go a single day without reading several headlines about Ebola or cat-calling; because of this, new discoveries made by various studies that have a broad appeal are reaching people more than ever before. With that said, over the past few years, people have become aware of several studies that were done to find a correlation between children and happiness. For example, an article by Time Magazine, titled “Do Children Bring Happiness- Or Misery”, while not really reaching a conclusion one way or the other, did provide some extrinsic proofs such as that U.S. adults ages 17-25 with children reported, on average, being less happy than their childless counterparts (Lyubomirsky). While this group is on the younger side of parenthood, these sorts of statistics could definitely be playing a role in getting young couples off of the fence in favor of not having a child. Another study provided by CNN, conducted on several sets of parents, showed that out of sixteen different activities, taking care of their child “ranked only above housework and commuting in its enjoyableness” (Etzioni). Not only this, but many couples that the quality of the relationship with their actual partner, their marriage as a whole, gets much worse after having a child (Etzioni). Many young couples that don’t want to risk their relationship may see this as a potential reason to avoid children, at least temporarily.  This reduced happiness as a result of children also isn’t simply a correlation; it isn’t that the type of couples who choose to not have children also tend to lead happier lifestyles. One study went about showing this by tracking several couples before and after having children, in order to see how they were affected by this decision. On average, the couples were about 1 point happier on a 10 point scale before they had their children (Myrskyla). The point to be made is essentially that this type of research is reaching the hands of many potential parents and they are starting to really question their decision to have a child. For one reason or another, perhaps they simply have too much that they want to do in their life, such as travel, that may be imeded by children, or they simply are more concerned with maintaining intimacy with their partner, these couples are realizing that the life that comes with having a child simply isn’t for them; this is something that has never been considered so deeply before; In fact, specifically wanting to maintain intimacy was “one of the most commonly cited reasons that the voluntarily

childless choose not to bear or rear children”(Blackstone). While the percentage of parents deciding to not have kids for “selfish” reasons like these is only 16% out of all childless parents (“Fewer American Couples”), that still ultimately makes up tens of thousands of lost births over the past several years (Kurtz).

For all of these reasons and perhaps some other, this shift is happening, and it seems that it is going to continue to do so, especially if the U.S. economy does not recover. With that said, it is important to be aware and prepared for some of the changes that may occur as a result of this shift, whether they be economic, cultural, or otherwise.

The first thing to be addressed regarding reduced fertility is one that often has many misconceptions around it; the economy. More often than not, people think that reduced fertility indicates a decreasing population and subsequently reduces the workforce, reducing output and ultimately economic growth. The first thing to be addressed in this misconception is that with fertility numbers such as the one we are seeing, the population is nowhere near declining. We are simply seeing a slowing of growth, which can be a good thing in an already overpopulated world. Secondly, history in countries other than America has shown us that reduced fertility can actually have astounding economic benefits. It is for this reason that China surpassed India in economic growth since the 1970’s, during the time that China’s one-child policy was in effect (Teitelbaum). The reasoning behind this is essentially that reducing births puts more of the total population in the workforce and increases the amount of older, more experienced, and overall better workers in relation to the rest of the population (Teitelbaum). In another article published by Brown University, it was pointed out that while it is difficult to determine whether the relationship is causal or correlational, it is fairly definite that we tend to see reducing fertility with improving economic conditions. To be specific, the GDP per capita of working individuals will increase (Ashraf). This could be incredibly beneficial to the U.S. economy considering its current state, and could most likely allow many parents who aren’t having kids purely for financial reasons to do so.

Another impact that ties very closely into the economy is education. Many people believe that smaller class sizes allow for kids to have greater success in school because it allows them to receive more individual attention. Smaller class sizes are also something that results from decreasing fertility. As fertility decreases, the amount of children in the country decreases relative to the rest of the population, meaning there will be fewer students per class and ultimately more attention being spent per student (Ashraf). However, it’s not just more attention that these student receive. If school budgets remain relatively the same and there are less kids, there is actually more money to invest on resources per child (Teitelbaum) .

One other potential benefit proposed by an article of the New York Times is that lower fertility results in greater social stability. The idea behind this is that by having more positions available for younger workers, since less of them are entering the workforce, there are more satisfied, productive workers in the positions they desire, rather a large group of unsatisfied, unhappy ones. Having large groups of youth in this category of not having a job or role within society that they value can have much worse consequences than one might expect: “many experts have attributed everything from terrorism to the Arab Spring to this “youthquake” of disaffected young adults in the Middle East and North Africa” (Teitelbaum). All in all, this reduction in fertility seems to bring about positive change to society.

According to a poll conducted by CNN Money, 6 in 10 people feel that the American dream is unattainable (Duke). A man growing up, getting the perfect job and a perfect wife who, despite being busy taking care of the kids all day, would have a hot dinner ready for the husband when they got home; this dream used to be strived for, but today is not just unattainable but also unwanted. It’s outdated. People don’t want to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to have children in the current economic state. Not every woman wants to sit around and take care of children while their husband works. The idea that this dream, specifically the child portion of it, is no longer just assumed to bring happiness. People have woken up and started to question what it is that will really make them happy, rather than simply being told what they want by the culture they grew up in. Ultimately, this decision of free-thought will benefit us all greatly. It may bring economic growth and more money to individuals; education may see improvement as children begin to receive more individual attention; society as a whole may become more stable, with more young people getting the jobs they really want. Our culture as a whole may start to be more accepting of the notion of not wanting children, while those that do want kids will hopefully be enabled to do so by an economic upturn. However, what must also be remembered is that having children should be one’s own life decision. It isn’t simply an economic or financial or job decision; it is something that will affect a couple’s entire life and happiness, which is most important consideration of all.

Works Cited

Ashraf, Quamrul H., David N. Weil, and Joshua Wilde. “The Effect of Fertility Reduction on Economic Growth.” (n.d.): n. pag. Economics at Brown University. Brown University, Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.

Blackstone, Amy. “Doing Family Without Having Kids.” Sociology Compass 8.1 (2014): 52-62. Wiley Online Library. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.

Davidson, Jacob. “10 Things Everyone Spends Their Money On.” Time Money. Time, 16 July 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Duke, Selwyn. “The Obama Birth Dearth: Why Are People Having Fewer Kids?” The New America. The New America Magazine, 11 June 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Etzioni, Amitai. “Does Having Kids Make You Less Happy?” CNN. Cable News Network, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

“Facts Over Time.” Women’s Bureau. United States Department of Labor, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

“Fewer American Couples Planning to Have Children, Which Could Harm the U.S. Economy.” Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 12 May 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Hicken, Melanie. “Average Cost of Raising a Child Hits $245,000.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

Huber, Rose B. “Recessions Result in Lower Birth Rates in the Long Run.” Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Princeton University, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Kurtz, Annalyn. “U.S Birth Rate Falls to Record Low.” CNN Money. Cable News Network, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

Kurtzlaben, Danielle. “Just How Fast Has College Tuition Grown?” US News. U.S.News & World Report, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “Do Children Bring Happiness-or Misery?” Time. Time Inc., 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Myrskyla, Mikko, and Rachel Margolis. “Happiness: Before and After the Kids.” Demography 51.5 (2014): 1843-866. Springer Link. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.

Nasser, Haya E. “Baby Bust: US Fertility Rates Hit All-time Lows.” Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera America, LLC., 26 June 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Styles, Ruth. “Are You Too Clever to Be a Mother? Maternal Urge Decreases by a QUARTER for Every 15 Extra IQ Points.” Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Suzuki, Emi. “Between 1960 and 2012, the World Average Fertility Rate Halved to 2.5 Births per Woman.” Open Data. The World Bank Group, 10 July 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Teitelbaum, Michael S., and Jay M. Winter. “Bye-Bye, Baby.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 04 Apr. 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

Walshe, Sadhbh. “Should We Care That Smart Women Aren’t Having Kids?” The Guardian. Guardian News, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.

“What’s the Price Tag for a College Education?” College Data. National Association for College Admission, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

• Intro
  • Describe the shift – More people (especially Millennials) are planning on not having children.
  • What is happening? There has been a drop from 78% down to 42% in Millennial’s planning to have children in the last 20 years, and this number is continuing to decrease
  • Briefly mention various causes and impacts
  • For various reasons relating to economics, culture, society and social media, a shift is occurring in which less and less people are deciding to take upon the responsibility of having children.
• Reasons for this shift (Some of these claims I don’t yet have research for but I’m making based off of personal observations. If I can’t find evidence obviously I wouldn’t include them)
  • The economy
    • The state of the economy is scaring many younger people looking towards their future. They don’t see the financial security required for having a child at any point in the near future, and so they aren’t planning on having them.
    • More people are beginning to see children as a financial burden due to the economy; whether or not they are financially secure, they don’t want to make themselves worse off by needing to spend money on a child
      • On average, raising a child in the U.S. costs about $240,000 not including college tuition
  • Women working
    • Traditionally, women stayed home to raise children while men went off to work. Our current society is much more questioning of these traditional gender roles, and we see more and more women going to work
      • With both the man and the women working in the house, both of whom value their careers, neither partner wants to take the time off the raise a child, and so they simply decide to not have one.
  • Increasing divorce rates
    • With the divorce rate being at about 50%, many couples don’t want to risk having a child with a partner they aren’t sure about
      • The divorce rate also discourages millennials from planning on having kids, whether with a specific partner in mind or not, because they see that relationships aren’t lasting anyway.
    • Related to increasing divorce rates, it seems that more and more people are shying away from long term relationships which only further discourages having children
  • Upcoming generations are less accepting of cultural standards and are more questioning
    • This is causing more and more people to critically think about the idea of having a child, rather than just doing it because it’s what you’re “supposed” to do
    • Numerous studies have been done on the correlation of having children and happiness. It has been found that generally those who choose to not have kids have happier lives.
      • This can be correlated to the above point; many people have kids without thinking about what is best for them. They simply do it out of tradition. As more and more people start to think about this life decision, they realize they would be happier without children
  • Those debating being parents don’t want to introduce children into the world as it currently is (This point is a bit more theoretical and personal, but I’ll try to find research)
    • Having been a young teenager myself, I saw what the average teen looked like, and I don’t have confidence that I would be able to raise one of the rare kids that isn’t drinking or trying drugs or having sex at 14 or 15 years old.
      • This can largely be attributed to the types of things that kids are surrounded with in terms of media, not necessarily bad parenting. It’s hard to lead a child away from all of the songs that glorify drug use and having sex; they’re even played a middle school dances. I, and many other people I know, simply don’t want to raise a kid in this kind of environment.
• Effects of this shift (The shift is still occurring, so many of these are just theoretical. I’ll add more later)
  • Obviously a decrease in population (or at least decreased population growth rate)
    • This effect in itself will have widespread subsequent effects on food/ world hunger, poverty, etc.
  • Economic impacts
    • With less people there is a decreased work force which ultimately leads to less productivity and less being done.
    • Despite this, GDP per capita would increase, meaning individuals would have more wealth
    • Distribution of spending would change; with $240,000 not being spent on raising a child, where would this money be going?
  • Cultural
    • Cultural standards and tradition of generally always having children could be broken

According to Time: Money, by 2017, millennials are going to have more spending money than any other generation. One of the main reasons for this is because they aren’t planning on having children. Just 20 years ago, 78% of millennials said they planned on having children, and that number has since dropped to 42%. If we extrapolate this, that percentage will continue to drop. But why could this be?

My paradigm shift essay will be about this change in millennial’s values and views towards children. Are more and more people starting to worry about their own careers and prosperity rather than starting a family? Children may be starting to be viewed as something that impedes one’s life goals. Maybe they are discouraged by the high divorce rate and perhaps no longer can commit to long-term relationships. Whatever the case may be, this change is happening and seems to be becoming more prevalent.

The effects of this shift also must be questioned. For one thing, having fewer children may help to alleviate the world of overpopulation. It could also be beneficial to the economy, but will also likely change economic focuses; according to the USDA, the cost of raising a child is about $240,000. This is $240,000 that isn’t being spent on food and clothing for children, so where is this money going to go? Is this shift going to mark the beginning of new cultural standards? All of this will be examined and more.

Here’s the commercial.

• Introduction
  • Call of Duty is a first person shooter style video game that has been around for almost a decade. With a new version released every year, it’s popularity continues to grow and each subsequent release breaks the previous years sales records.
  • One particular commercial for the game “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, released a few years ago, used interesting rhetorical tactics in an attempt to not only increase their sales, but to also broaden their demographic.
  • The ad cycled through a series of individuals all fighting on the same, middle-east looking battlefield. Each individual in the ad was representative of a different type person within society. For example, there are business men and women, construction workers, a cook, etc.
  • Each person has some sort of gun and the commercial goes from one person to the next, showing an action sequence for each.
• Use of “Regular” People
  • It’s obvious that the main rhetorical component of the ad is it’s use of “regular” people. Because the developers and the publishers of Call of Duty: Black Ops want the game to be more casual and accessible to people of all ages, they have made their ad in a way that it caters to this audience. By using regular people, they are attempting to demonstrate that people of all ages, professions, genders, etc. can have fun playing their game.
  • Another thing to take note of is that instead of showing groups of people, each type of person get’s their own segment of the commercial to show that each individual is just as important as the others and that in a sense, each person is a hero.
    • This is an appeal to logos as well as ethos. Logically, people think that if they see other people of a similar societal role enjoying the Call of Duty world, they will too. For example, a business woman seeing herself in the ad will think that she too will enjoy the game. because other business women do. This is also an appeal to ethos because people are able to identify with the people in the commercial and have a certain degree of respect for that person and their opinion because they are so similar to themselves.
• Use of Celebrities
  • The ad also features two celebrities (Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant), which carry a large degree of ethos. When people see these familiar faces with guns in their hand enjoying the action, they not only identify with that person, but also respect the legitimacy of their opinion. People look to celebrities to tell them what they should and shouldn’t like and when they see a celebrity endorsing a video game, they automatically assume that this game must have a certain degree of quality.
• Use of a familiar, classic rock song (Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones)
  • The song in this ad is classic rock, a genre that is normally familiar to a large variety of people. Older people/ adults have heard the song because it is from their generation, while teenagers have heard it because it’s a “classic”.
  • This does two things; first of all, the familiarity of the song among people creates a sense of unity between the viewers. Everyone recognizes the song and realizes that most other people have heard it as well. Call of Duty’s Publishers are trying to draw parallels between the song and the game itself. They are attempting to paint the game as something familiar and fun that everyone can enjoy and play together, regardless of what generation you’re from/ who you are.
  • The beat of the song itself also has a fairly fun vibe. This entirely sets the atmosphere for the commercial. Normally, a bunch of people shooting guns wouldn’t seem like fun, but the song contextualizes it to make it seem like shooting guns and using explosives is something that we can all enjoy because the song itself is pleasant.
    • The use of a familiar song is an appeal to pathos; for many older people, this offers a sense of nostalgia
• Use of a commonplace; everyone wants to be a hero; everyone wants to be in the action
  • At the end, the slogan for the ad is “There’s a soldier in all of us”. This is meant to appeal to people’s’ desire to have their actions be meaningful. While the other aspects of the commercial show the viewer that they will have fun playing the game, this aspect shows them that they will be able to be engaged by the story and real like a real “soldier”; their actions will feel meaningful and heroic.
• Lack of actual violence
  • Despite all the gunfire, explosions, rocket, etc. in the commercial, at no point does the viewer actually see anyone get shot or hurt
  • While this is something people wouldn’t explicitly notice, it is an appeal to pathos because seeing people getting shot is never really considered fun or playful like the rest of the commercial. The exclusion of this allows the commercial to keep the fun, action-packed tone.

• Introduction:
  • Stakeholders:
    • Children and Teens – These are often the victims of Cyberbullying, or perhaps the bullies themselves. As with regular bullying, it’s significantly less prevalent to nearly nonexistent among adults
    • Parents – Concerned about the safety and well being of their children
    • Schools – They feel that they are responsible for such behavior, even outside of school
  • Exigence:
    • Over the past few years, there have been countless news segments and documentaries discussing Cyberbullying.On one hand, it has largely impacted the lives of some young children, but on the other hand, research suggests that this isn’t occurring as frequently as we might think. The severity of a bullies impact when their means of harm is through the internet must also be called into question.
  • Thesis
    • Cyberbullying has been portrayed in the media as a hugely serious problem, despite it occurring with much less frequency and severity than reports suggest.
• Main Idea #1 – Cyberbullying is a serious issue with children and teenagers, as the physiological effects that this form of bullying has can be devastating.
  • Extends the range or normal bullying outside of school; kids must continue to deal with harassment from bullies even when they are home. This is physiologically devastating to many kids because they feel that they cannot escape their torment.
  • “Whereas previously, bullying would stop at the school gate or the front door with the home providing a safe haven, this is no longer the case. Young people today are connected 24/7, which also means they can be contacted and bullied with the same intensity.”
    • Appeal to logos – It’s clear to see how cyberbullying as an extension of normal bullying can increase its prevalence in a childs life
    • Appeal to pathos – People feel bad for the children. Words like “Intensity” and the lack of kids “Safe haven” make the issue seem very real.
  • Bullying leads to many suicides, and Cyberbullying only worsens this problem. In 2012, Cyberbullying directly led to at least 9 suicides.
    • Pathos – Children and teens committing suicide is inevitably tragic
  • With the growth of Social Media and online interaction, it seems like the problem can only get worse as more and more kids direct their social interactions to occur through the internet.
    • Appeal to logos
• Main Idea #2 – While Cyberbullying may severely impact many of it’s victims, it’s impact is largely preventable and it occurs much less frequently than one would think.
  • Studies were done, encompassing over 450,000 students at 1,300 school, and it turned out that Cyberbullying is occurring much less frequently than many people believed. About 5% of students reported being Cyberbullied at some point.
    • 90% of these students reported also being bullied in school. One could argue that Cyberbullying is much less of an issue here; Bullies at school can’t really be escaped because they are physically present. Many kids don’t realize that if they are being verbally abused online they can simply block their bully or turn off the computer
      • Facts and statistics are largely irrefutable and appeal to logos
      • Uses logic to explain why Cyberbullying can easily be avoided
  • Another point is that many people, even adults, are often mean over the internet. That’s simply the nature of the internet.
  • Many people engage in what’s known as “trolling” – “make a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.” People are much more willing to be verbally abusive behind a keyboard. Children that aren’t prepared for this kind of unfiltered speech possibly shouldn’t be using the internet anyway.
    • Overall, this side of the argument is heavily based in logic, appealing to logos
    • Unlike its opposition, this side strongly lacks pathos as it seems to lack compassion towards young people
• Reflection
  • Ethically, Cyberbullying is wrong from all angles
    • However, the internet is a dangerous place as is , and whether it be a bully from school or some random person from the internet, people are very willing to say mean things. Children need to realize this and attempt to desensitize themselves from it.
    • On the other hand, telling kids and teens to “either get over it, or don’t use the internet” isn’t something that will actually happen. They are going to continue to be harmed by bullies outside of school. The only real solution is to stop bullying as a whole which is simply impossible.
• Conclusion
  • My thoughts: Personally, I think Cyberbullying isn’t as big of a deal as it seems to be. I remember it being talked about several times throughout middle school, and every time I was upset by the apparent lack of understanding of the adults reporting the information to us. While bullying is a real problem, Cyberbullying isn’t, or shouldn’t be. Blocking is a feature for a reason. Turning off the computer or your phone is an option. Deactivate your Facebook account if it becomes that serious. There are too many ways around it for it to be taken so seriously.
  • Concluding remark – I don’t disregard bullying. Bullying is, has been, and always will be a real problem that a lot of kids deal with, but Cyberbullying shouldn’t be something that has to occur if kids and teens are smart about their online usage.

1) Introduction:

a) Stakeholders:

i) Children and Teens – These are often the victims of Cyberbullying, or perhaps the bullies themselves. As with regular bullying, this isn’t really an issue among adults.

ii) Parents – Concerned about the safety and well being of their children

iii) Schools – They feel that they are responsible for such behavior, even outside of school

b) Problem:

i) Over the past few years, there have been countless news segments and documentaries discussing the tragedy known as Cyberbullying, but is it really as much of a problem as it’s been made out to be. On one hand, it has largely impacted the lives of some young children, but research suggests that this isn’t occurring as frequently as we might think. Another thing that must be called into question is the severity of a bullies impact when their means of harm is through the internet.

c) Thesis

i) While Cyberbullying is a serious problem within our society, it is much of a lesser frequency and severity than it is portrayed to have. (I know this is biased but I’m not sure how to word it so that it’s not)

2) Main Idea #1 (In defense of Cyberbullying being an issue)

a) Extends the range or normal bullying outside of school; kids must continue to deal with harassment from bullies even when they are home. This is physiologically devastating to many kids because they feel that they cannot escape their torment.

b) Bullying leads to many suicides, and Cyberbullying only worsens this problem. In 2012, Cyberbullying directly led to at least 9 suicides.

c) With the growth of Social Media and online interaction, it seems like the problem can only get worse as more and more kids direct their social interactions to occur through the internet.

3) Main Idea #2 (Cyberbullying is overrated)

a) Studies were done, encompassing over 450,000 students at 1,300 school, and it turned out that Cyberbullying is occurring much less frequently than many people believed. About 5% of students reported being Cyberbullied at some point.

b) 90% of these students reported also being bullied in school. One could argue that Cyberbullying is much less of an issue here; Bullies at school can’t really be escaped because they are physically present. Many kids don’t realize that if they are being verbally abused online they can simply block their bully or turn off the computer

c) Another point is that many people, even adults, are often mean over the internet. That’s simply the nature of the internet. People are much more willing to be verbally abusive behind a keyboard. Children that aren’t prepared for this kind of unfiltered speech possibly shouldn’t be using the internet anyway.

4) Reflection

a) Ethically, Cyberbullying is wrong from all angles

b) However, the internet is a dangerous place as is , and whether it be a bully from school or some random person from the internet, people are very willing to say mean things. Children need to realize this and attempt to desensitize themselves from it.

c) On the other hand, telling kids and teens to “either get over it, or don’t use the internet” isn’t something that will actually happen. They are going to continue to be harmed by bullies outside of school. The only real solution is to stop bullying as a whole which is simply impossible.

5) Conclusion

a) My thoughts: Personally, I think Cyberbullying isn’t as big of a deal as it seems to be. I remember it being talked about several times throughout middle school, and every time I was upset by the apparent lack of understanding of the adults reporting the information to us. While bullying is a real problem, Cyberbullying isn’t, or shouldn’t be. Blocking is a feature for a reason. Turning off the computer or your phone is an option. Deactivate your Facebook account if it becomes that serious. There are too many ways around it for it to be taken so seriously.

b) Concluding remark – I don’t disregard bullying. Bullying is, has been, and always will be a real problem that a lot of kids deal with, but Cyberbullying shouldn’t be something that has to occur if kids and teens are smart about their online usage.