Content Outline

            The third blog post of project 3 contains the project outline to my QRG. This will involve an opening section accompanied by three main arguments (with evidence) and then a conclusion.

Opening

·      Imagine this. You’re sitting around sitting around the dinner table with your family. Everyone is talking and having a great time. But, you aren’t.

·      In lieu of the situation, you do what you do best

·      Little do you know that the harmless tap of the finger and swipe of the thumb would change things forever

·      Leads to: mental illness, waste of time, and a destruction of relationships

How to grab the reader’s attention:

·      Begin with a personal story (apply ethos)

·      Begin with an arbitrary statistic and relate it back to social media (logos)

·      Use repetition at the beginning of each sentence structure

Claim 1: Social media wastes time

·      Evidence 1

·      This piece of evidence shows us something that people tend to neglect: time

·      Sure everyone needs to get on the internet to check their email or keep up with their job, but that’s just the start of it.

·      People spend an average of 27% of their time on social media

·      This is equivalent to about 16 minutes every hour

·      This is important because it shows the amount of time wasted in our lives.

·      This time could be spend doing so many better things.

·      If we were on the internet an hour a day, that means you spend nearly two hours a week talking to your “friends”

·      That time could be spent on family, working out, or hanging out with “actual” friends

·      Evidence 2

·      This journal displays another piece of quantitative data that discusses the effect of Facebook on GPA

·      First off, the article discusses how kids can multitask

·      This may seem beneficial at first, but let’s look a little deeper

·      Multitasking requires you to spend more time on a task (in this case, studying) in order to achieve the same results

·      This can also lead to various mistakes

·      The reported GPA of Facebook users is lower than that of non-users

·      This is important because not only does Facebook waste your time, but it will also decrease your GPA

·      And for what, to see what stupid things cats are doing now?

Claim 2: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can cause mental illness

·      Evidence 1

·      Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a condition in which you have trouble focusing, hyperactive behaviors, and impulsivity

·      What this really means is that you can’t sit down for a minute without tapping your foot or clicking your pen.

·      Tests become difficult and finals are nearly impossible

·      You won’t be able to talk to anyone because you’ll start thinking about your dinner last night and the bugs near or past your friend’s head

·      The thing is, social media causes all of this.

·      The fast paced scrolling and tapping leads to a short attention span

·      This is important because it shows that social media can change you physiologically

·      This will change the way you study and interact with people for the rest of your life

·      Evidence 2

·      What begins as a seemingly harmless tweet can head to the suicide of teenager?

·      This article discusses the correlation between social media and cyberbullying.

·      The online bullying can make someone depressed.

·      Depression isn’t just being sad

·       They can’t sleep, eat, or think about anything other than how worthless their life is

·      This can lead to physical and emotional damage (and sometimes death)

·      This piece of evidence is significant because it exemplifies not only the emotional dangers of online networking, but also the physical dangers it has

·      If someone has been bullied over the internet before, perhaps they will delete their networks in hopes of staying mentally stable

Counter: Social media has helped police find law-breakers

Rebuttal: Social media actually promotes fights

 Claim 3: Social media destroys relationships

·      Evidence 1

·      Whether Facebook says that you’re “In a relationship” or your Instagram bio says the date of your anniversary, social media is very involved with our relationships

·      This may seem like a good thing at first

·      You can constantly post pictures together and claim your love for one another through Man Crush Mondays and Women Crush Wednesdays

·      But it doesn’t stop there

·      Soon each of you are stalking the other’s profile to see who they follow and what they’ve favorite or liked

·      This article explains how the active use of Twitter leads to an increase in the amount of conflicts and break-ups between couples (also divorce if you’re there)

·      This is important because it shows the crucial role that social media plays in our lives

·      It is not just there when we get bored or want to pass the time

·      It has become a part of us that is hard to leave behind

·      And when something that doesn’t physically exist in reality becomes a part of us is the day that humanity will perish

·      Evidence 2

·      The use of social media has led to more Face-to-Face interactions and less actual interaction

·      As this article states, social media is making us less social beings

·      But aren’t we constantly being connected with people all over the world?

·      It seems like we are more connected than over

·      You see, that’s the problem. This article is so important because it proves that because we are so invested in our virtual friends, we tend to forget about the ones sitting next to us

·      We care more about taking a Vine of the scenery rather than just absorbing God’s creation as it is

·      We start to miss out on the cheesy jokes and ridiculous discussions around the dinner table

·      Before you know it, you’ll be living 2000 miles away from your family wishing that you had put down your phone

·      You’ll wish that you had paid more attention to your brother’s subtle hints at suicide

·      But instead, you were commenting on how funny the famous “Damn Daniel” video was

·      Again, this article was important because it displayed how social media is beginning to seclude us from life itself. Something that may be detrimental to the survival of the traditions of humanity

Counter: Social media doesn’t isolate you from society

Rebuttal: While it may not isolate you from society, it does isolate us from our actual friends

  Closing:

·      I have over 900 friends on Facebook. I’ve seen their shared posts, their senior pictures, and their family. I know what they are struggling with. Their likes. Their dislikes. I know that they got a scholarship to University of Minnesota. I know what they are studying and how college is going. But here’s the problem. I have only made about 100 friends over the course of my life. And I’ve only stayed friends with about 20 of them. You do the math.

·      Social media seems to be the connecting device to everyone in the world. It comforts us when we’re sad and makes us laugh in time of joy. Do not be fooled. Social media isn’t what you think it is. It destroys relationships, wastes our time, and enables mental illness.

Larger significance:

·      I could talk about how social media isn’t just in a period of our lives. Because missing your best friend’s graduation will stick with you for the rest of your life

·      I could also talk about how the effects described above don’t just apply to the younger generation. Twitter can cause divorce and organized gangs can attack anyone.