Clayton's 'Understanding The Civility Crisis'

Our world has changed, we have changed. We are now virtual. The people of today are spending more time staring at a screen than anything else in their lives. According to data journalist Felix Richter, Americans are using electronic media for over eleven hours a day (Richter). And with the National Sleep Foundation recommending up to nine hours of sleep for adults per day, this leaves just four hours for people to shower, eat, socialize, read, think and do everything else that humans do on a daily basis. . This is why things like going to the mall, to the bank and even the grocery store are becoming obsolete, you can order your clothes and food online to be delivered to your door and banking and paying bills can be done solely via the Internet.

Clayton describes the idea of civility in The United States of America today. Strategically Clayton uses politics to display his issue, by doing this he appeals to his audience’s emotions since politics is a strong-willed area of discussion in America today. Clayton begins his essay by expressing the lack of civility in The United States today, however, continues by declaring that in some cases the lack of civility is a positive and that incivility and democracy go hand and hand. Clayton expands Louis C.K.’s reasoning that world is changing by describing the incivility in today’s world. Clayton provides evidence from how South Carolina representative Joe Wilson shouted in the middle of President Barack Obama’s speech calling him a liar. Another example, of this are the “shouting matches that now pass for political [debates]” (Clayton). Louis C.K. would most likely accredit these acts of incivility to the digital age. Clayton does, he states that social media has “radically changed the way Americans communicate with each other, altering the norms of discourse” (Clayton). Clayton claims that yes, there is an increase in civility partially due to Internet