Rhetorical Analysis Of Jean Twenge Has The Smartphone Destroyed A Generation

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English 101 Dr. Rhodes Amber Rinder 10/1/17 Rhetorical Analysis of Jean Twenge’s “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” Technology has always been at the forefront of the world’s mind, for as long as anyone can remember. The idea of “advancing” has been a consistent goal among developers. However, recently the invention of smartphones broke out into the world of technology, causing millions of people to become encapsulated in a world of knowledge at their fingertips. Jean Twenge elaborates on the impacts of the smartphone on the younger generation in her article “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” Twenge’s article is just a sliver of the analysis that she presents in her book “IGen.” Twenge, a professor of psychology at San …show more content…

She analyses how her data collections began to change around 2012, when smartphones really began to advance. Twenge’s article maintains the argument that, while many people have different ideas about the cause for the change in teen attitudes in recent years, she believes that smartphones are greatly to blame. To support her claim, Twenge states that the rates of depression have “skyrocketed” (p. 61) (Pathos). She also says that “There’s not a single exception …. screen activities are linked to less happiness” (p. 63) (Logos). Lastly, Twenge states “In all my analyses of generational data- some reaching back to the 1930’s- I had never seen anything like it” (p. 59) …show more content…

That alone provides a great source of credibility to the paper. The idea that this is an author who has done the research, gathered the numbers, and analyzed the data, allows the reader to rest in the idea that they are reading a valid article, and receiving good, hard, evidence. Twenge also uses a very logical tone throughout her article, maintaining the idea that the data is as clear as day, and that there is no disproving it; the numbers show true facts. Twenge provides background and numbers on how teen actions are constantly changing, as the years advance. Twenge provides specific data from Monitoring the Future, a program funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The use of graphs in the article support Twenge’s logical approach by providing a visual representation of the number being presented. Twenge goes on to link the use of cellphones with sleep deprivation. She uses the example of sleep deprivation to describe the snowball effect of health issues. Sleep deprivation leads to depression which leads to bigger problems, the longer it goes

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