TOW #27: "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters," by Bill Tancer

In Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters, Bill Tancer describes the psychology behind what people are clicking on when browsing the internet. He then applies this psychology to how people think, allowing us to understand how we tick. Throughout the text, he uses a scholarly tone, graphs, and hypophora in order to uncover a deeper truth about the psychology about why we do certain activities while online.

Tancer maintains a scholarly tone throughout the text in order to establish ethos on the subject and to be more convincing to his readers. For example, he says, “An interesting corollary to this concept of measuring political thought processes through clickstream data is the use of this same data to understand political bias in traditional news coverage” (46). Using words, such as “corollary,” and technical jargon, such as “clickstream,” Tancer is able to show that he is both a credible source of information and educated in the topic. This allows him to convey his message to readers in a more convincing way that makes his readers question his credibility less.

Tancer also uses graphs to support his ideas and provide background statistics that help readers come to the same deductions that Tancer does. Providing graphs also gives visuals for people who are more visual learners, broadening his audience. Since these graphs are based off of real statistics from credible third-party sources, he is able to establish a stronger sense of ethos.

At the beginning of most chapters, Tancer uses hypophora to introduce his ideas and transition from previous chapters to the current chapter. In Chapter 10, a chapter that talks about finding early adopters to a specific site, Tancer asks, “Do you ever wonder how innovation spreads from an idea to mass adoption?” (171). By asking this broad question at the beginning of the chapter, he can spend the rest of the chapter delving into this topic and answering the question. This structure provides a great way for Tancer to get his readers to question the same things he does, and then transition into the idea at hand.

Throughout Click, Tancer uses his rhetoric in order to discover the true psychology behind what people do online and why. He is able to successfully get his ideas across to his readers as writes in a way that gets readers excited about the topic as well.

TOW #26: "What is the Monkeysphere?" by David Wong

In his article “What is the Monkeysphere?”, David Wong writes about the Monkeysphere theory, discussing that there’s a certain limit to the number of people that we can conceptualize as people and anyone outside this circle of people are seen more things. This explains why the death of a friend or family member can be traumatizing, while the massacring of a thousand people on the other side of the world is only a mere statistic. Wong uses hypophora and a blunt, colloquial tone in order to explain this Monkeysphere theory and to convey how we can be more mindful people.

Wong structures his article in a strict fashion, where he uses hypophora to drive the article forwards and transition between different concepts. More specifically, the questions that he asks are questions that he predicts we may have in our heads. For example, when transitioning between explaining what the Monkeysphere is and telling readers why it is important, he asks, “So what exactly are we supposed to do about all this?” Since he spent most of his time explaining what this theory entails, he knows that the readers might be wondering why he is talking about it. This hypophora allows him to transition into talking about how we can apply this concept to life and the real world.

Along with using this strict structure of writing, he utilizes a blunt, colloquial tone to better connect with readers and to give his straightforward, no-fluff thoughts. When talking about why people should understand this idea of the Monkeysphere, he gives his three-point application, with the first point being, “First, TOTAL MORON. That is, accept the fact THAT YOU ARE ONE. We all are.” He is telling his readers that they are “morons” because most people tend to be very self-centered and not care about other people who are outside of their Monkeysphere. With this tone, he is also edgy and borderline offensive, which makes his argumentations more real and to the point.

Despite having an overall casual feel, this article was meant to expose a deeper truth within all of us: that we do not care about people we do not know. Wong explains it is impossible to care about everyone because this would require us to be deeply invested in the interests of 7 million people. But, what Wong does try to get across is that we should live our lives in mindfulness, and be more aware that even the people we do not closely associate with are people and deserve the same respect that people we are close with do.

(https://animalfeasance.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/chimps.jpg)

IRD Intro Post (MP4)

For the Fourth Marking Period, I will be reading "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters," a book that describes the psychology behind what people are clicking on when browsing the internet. It then applies this psychology to how people think, allowing us to understand how we tick. This is very interesting to my interests in business as it provides deep insite into why the mind does what it does.

http://june.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54ed1baa988330105356ae79b970c-pi

TOW #25: "AP Classes Are a Scam" by John Tierny

In “AP Classes Are a Scam,” journalist John Tierny writes about how College Board is scamming students by offering so-called college-level classes (when they are really not) and making large profits off of millions of high schoolers. He uses a condescending tone, listing, and plebeian diction in order to urge parents and students to be wary of the tricks College Board plays to make money.

Throughout the article, Tierny uses a condescending tone in order to show his disapproval of College Board. He opens up describing Advanced Placement courses as “one of the great frauds currently perpetrated on American high-school students.” He constantly attacks College Board for its fraudulence and effectively uses his tone as a way to convey his emotions. This impacts readers by also giving them these same ill feelings that Tierny has.

After giving his position on College Board, he supports his argument by listing off the main reasons as to why he believes Advanced Placement is a scam. He says things such as the fact that many of these courses are not nearly college level to the fact that “the AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.” By listing many of the weaknesses and flaws of Advanced Placement courses, Tierny is able to allow readers to inductively come to the same conclusions that he has about these courses.

Given that his audience is parents and students, Tierny also uses plebeian diction in order to connect better with his readers. For example, he says, “My beef with AP courses isn't novel.” “My beef” is more of a colloquial and slang phrase that many young people would use in America. By doing this, Tierny is able to connect with his audience of both students and parents and convey his message in a more captivating way.

Despite all this, there is one major flaw in Tierny’s article. This is the fact that he spends all his time speaking invectively towards College Board and fails to include counterargument refutation. By leaving out a refutation of the positive aspects of Advanced Placement, Tierny fails to convince those who believe that the positives of Advanced Placement outweigh the negatives. Despite this, he uses strong rhetoric, allowing more people to be wary when it comes to Advanced Placement courses.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/College_board_logo.svg/1280px-College_board_logo.svg.png)