Rhetorical Analysis of Facebook.com
Rhetorical Analysis of Facebook.com
William Vasquez
English 1311 045
Carolyn Drapes
10/3/12
Rhetorical Analysis of Facebook.com
Introduction
The group I was part of consisted of Adrian, Ivon, and Daniel and we decided to focus our rhetorical analysis of Aristotelian appeals on Facebook.com. We decided on Facebook because it is such an open and inviting website. It is also the mainstream social networking site and we felt that everyone could relate to it since most people in this time period have one. Launched in February 2004, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University.
Ethos
Ethos is the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as in its beliefs and aspirations. The ethical part of the website would deal with its credibility. Starting off as a Harvard student homework site initially, the website was invented by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, and three of his classmates – Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz. Facebook then transcended into the most used social media site across the world and still holds the social reigns. The website was set up as a type of “hot or not” game for Harvard students. The website allowed visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them choose who was “hot” and who was “not”. The origins of Facebook are not known to many although depicted in the movie, “The Social Network” the roots of the social network are brought forth in a tasteful thematic experience. Facebook came to be an icon, something that would revolutionize the ways in which we communicate with anyone across the globe.
Pathos
Pathos is a quality that invokes pity or sadness. Facebook is a positive website where family, friends, and many others can interact in a happy friendly manner. Having access to communicate with anyone across deserts, mountains, cities, and oceans is a powerful tool. Most relatives live far from where we do therefore, Facebook brings joys to those. It also aids business’s because they can convey a message or advertisement on one single page that is seen by thousands of users a day. Facebook tends to bring a positive connotation to it. However, there can be a negative outcome as to where users can involve themselves in heated discussions angering each other or a network error may occur. In some weird instances there might be unusual occurrences. For example I had a co-worker that broke up with her boyfriend and he changed her account password. He then hacked her Facebook page and embarrassed her horribly. These are examples of how Facebook could have a positive or negative emotional appeal on a person.
Logos
Logos refers to the internal consistency of the message the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence. Facebook has many logic and statistics to support its success and credibility. Facebook, Inc. (FB) is the prime online social network in the world and currently possesses over 901 million monthly active users ("MAU"), more than 500 million daily active users ("DAU"), and over 125 billion user connections. Facebook users upload more than 300 million photographs daily and about 750 million photographs on every weekend. These are just a few of the numbers and figures Facebook has reached in its time as the social leader leaving others in its wake. Facebook earned 9 cents per diluted share in the quarter ending March 31. Its net income attributable to shareholders came in at $137 million ($205 million in total net income), down 10.5% from the corresponding quarter a year ago. Revenue of $1.1 billion was up 44.7% from 2011. The networking giant has become so huge and influential that it bought photo sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, shelling out $550 million for part of an AOL patent portfolio by Microsoft.
Summary
The audience for Facebook is immense. People use it for personal accounts, business, school, and in many other ways. The overall structure of Facebook is very user friendly it has more of a narrow and long page set up. The setup is so long and narrows because it has all the history and newsfeed from a certain time period to another. It has many tabs on the side bars to better navigate the website. For instance it contains the “News Feed, Messages, Nearby, Events and Friends” tabs. It also has a search bar to look for specific friends if you are looking to request them or trying to use a quick search. Facebook also serves as a reminder or some sort of agenda because you can use it to keep track of events. I use it to maintain dates of my friends birthdays so I can wish them a happy birthday.
References
Facebook. (2004, 02 04). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/
Seeking alpha. (2012, 10 04). Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/fb
Forbes. (2012, 05 17) Retrieved from http://Forbes.com
William Vasquez
English 1311 045
Carolyn Drapes
10/3/12
Rhetorical Analysis of Facebook.com
Introduction
The group I was part of consisted of Adrian, Ivon, and Daniel and we decided to focus our rhetorical analysis of Aristotelian appeals on Facebook.com. We decided on Facebook because it is such an open and inviting website. It is also the mainstream social networking site and we felt that everyone could relate to it since most people in this time period have one. Launched in February 2004, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University.
Ethos
Ethos is the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as in its beliefs and aspirations. The ethical part of the website would deal with its credibility. Starting off as a Harvard student homework site initially, the website was invented by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, and three of his classmates – Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz. Facebook then transcended into the most used social media site across the world and still holds the social reigns. The website was set up as a type of “hot or not” game for Harvard students. The website allowed visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them choose who was “hot” and who was “not”. The origins of Facebook are not known to many although depicted in the movie, “The Social Network” the roots of the social network are brought forth in a tasteful thematic experience. Facebook came to be an icon, something that would revolutionize the ways in which we communicate with anyone across the globe.
Pathos
Pathos is a quality that invokes pity or sadness. Facebook is a positive website where family, friends, and many others can interact in a happy friendly manner. Having access to communicate with anyone across deserts, mountains, cities, and oceans is a powerful tool. Most relatives live far from where we do therefore, Facebook brings joys to those. It also aids business’s because they can convey a message or advertisement on one single page that is seen by thousands of users a day. Facebook tends to bring a positive connotation to it. However, there can be a negative outcome as to where users can involve themselves in heated discussions angering each other or a network error may occur. In some weird instances there might be unusual occurrences. For example I had a co-worker that broke up with her boyfriend and he changed her account password. He then hacked her Facebook page and embarrassed her horribly. These are examples of how Facebook could have a positive or negative emotional appeal on a person.
Logos
Logos refers to the internal consistency of the message the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence. Facebook has many logic and statistics to support its success and credibility. Facebook, Inc. (FB) is the prime online social network in the world and currently possesses over 901 million monthly active users ("MAU"), more than 500 million daily active users ("DAU"), and over 125 billion user connections. Facebook users upload more than 300 million photographs daily and about 750 million photographs on every weekend. These are just a few of the numbers and figures Facebook has reached in its time as the social leader leaving others in its wake. Facebook earned 9 cents per diluted share in the quarter ending March 31. Its net income attributable to shareholders came in at $137 million ($205 million in total net income), down 10.5% from the corresponding quarter a year ago. Revenue of $1.1 billion was up 44.7% from 2011. The networking giant has become so huge and influential that it bought photo sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, shelling out $550 million for part of an AOL patent portfolio by Microsoft.
Summary
The audience for Facebook is immense. People use it for personal accounts, business, school, and in many other ways. The overall structure of Facebook is very user friendly it has more of a narrow and long page set up. The setup is so long and narrows because it has all the history and newsfeed from a certain time period to another. It has many tabs on the side bars to better navigate the website. For instance it contains the “News Feed, Messages, Nearby, Events and Friends” tabs. It also has a search bar to look for specific friends if you are looking to request them or trying to use a quick search. Facebook also serves as a reminder or some sort of agenda because you can use it to keep track of events. I use it to maintain dates of my friends birthdays so I can wish them a happy birthday.
References
Facebook. (2004, 02 04). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/
Seeking alpha. (2012, 10 04). Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/fb
Forbes. (2012, 05 17) Retrieved from http://Forbes.com