A lot of the readings for the past week have been about rhetoric and how it plays a big role in our society today. This form of writing influences many things that we do, learn, and see in our world today. Rhetoric can be written, spoken or visual language that can “organize and maintain social groups, construct meanings and identities, coordinate behavior, mediate power, produce change, and create knowledge” (San Diego State University, 2019). So not only can this take on a form of writing it can also be experienced socially, conversationally, and visually.
One common theme in the articles, videos, and readings this week was how technology has been changing and how rhetoric relates to this. Technology is rhetorical in itself because it is a medium that can persuade knowledge and change behavior. This has become increasingly more popular in recent years because of all the social media platforms that are available to be rhetorical. Although technology is inanimate figuratively speaking, the rhetorical results it produces are not. Some people are so attached to their phone and social media they cannot go more than a couple minutes without at least glancing at it. It causes people to be uninvolved in their real daily lives and miss out on moments they can’t get back.
Technology rhetorically influences almost everything that we do and can be done in today’s world. In school settings there has been more cyber bullying that comes from texted written language that can change other people’s perspectives, actions, and viewpoints on someone. There can be spoken rhetoric that changes behavior and viewpoint such as TED talks and podcasts that can create knowledge and mediate change. There is also visual rhetoric on social media as referenced by different media platforms used for different reactions. A lot of persuasion and rhetoric that comes from social media is about how someone is supposed to look and the definition of beauty. This is visual rhetoric in the fact that some easily influenced people may want to change themselves or create an idea of beauty that should not be standard for everyone.
In the article, “Rhetoric, Multimedia Technology and the Service Learning Classroom” (2011) it is discussed how rhetoric can be any form of communication. Not only can it be technology related as stated above but it relates to how different forms of media have different affects on learning. Hidalgo and Leon’s (2011) study related to memory making. It emphasized how memories are affected by the communities which people are in. Their study was in a retirement community so the students in the study had to create relationships with the elderly and use different technologies for their projects. So the students had to think rhetorically and manage what media would be best for these residents. When doing the projects it also urged students to think rhetorically because they needed to find the best place for the interviews they were doing for their projects to enhance learning. Taking all these different things into mind all relates back to the central theme of rhetoric. It encompassed written rhetoric when making projects that would influence the elderly population, spoken rhetoric when presenting to different groups, and visual by making media that would conform to the correct group they were presenting to. This helped create knowledge about the relationship between memories and communities. This article, “Rhetoric, Multimedia Technology and the Service Learning Classroom” (2011) does a good job at highlighting the many different forms rhetoric can take on and the different populations it can apply to.
In conclusion, I think technology and rhetoric will continue to be an ongoing discussion in years to come. Technology has influenced and changed the way many of us live. The purpose for the written, spoken, or visual language in rhetoric can be to change what people believe, inform them on topics, or to convince them of something. This purpose in rhetoric acts to do the above actions to the audience, or the people using the technology or medium of persuasion. By communicating and working to change someone’s mindset it is rhetoric that is easily transferred to many things like social media platforms and media in general. Rhetoric has influence over people, just like technology does and the different forms of media as referenced in the article above. It has such influence that this is why some people are so attached to their phones and social media. Technology is only increasing in depth and extensiveness so it is reasonable to assume rhetoric in technology and different social medias will always be present.
Hidalgo, A., & Leon, K. (2011). Rhetoric, Multimedia Technology and the Service Learning Classroom. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/amber/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/Rhetoric%20Multimedia%20Technology%20and%20the%20SLC%20fall%202016%20(3).pdf
San Diego State University. (2019). What is Rhetoric? Retrieved from Rhetoric & Writing Studies website: https://rhetoric.sdsu.edu/resources/what_is_rhetoric.htm
Amber Kohls 