The essay written by Adrian Chen takes a different approach on good VS bad argument regarding the integration of social media into our relationships. The sizable Twitter following that Phelps-Roper gained over a relatively short period of time challenges the “rule of thirds” looking at the gain and loss of friends, but also develops the question of do you really consider everyone on your social media following your friend? The answer to this may differ from person to person, but on average the number of people we are actually close with on social media platforms is much less than the actual number of followers. When I look at the people I am following on social media, I can see people I am close friends with in real life and on social media, some people who I know in person but I am not close with, and some that I only interact with online. Finding a balance between spending time with someone in person and also being able to talk to them online is where aspects of both essays come together in understanding. In Chen’s essay, Phelps-Roper met people online through social media and then proceeded to meet them in person. This shows the beginning of the idea of balance. She met them online but over a phone screen you cannot replicate actual human interaction. This also shows how using social media can help create these initial bonds with people and make it easier to meet them face-to-face. In Chen’s essay, Phelps-Roper says, “She and C.G. connected as strongly in person as they had online, and they now live together” (Chen.) Social media was in Phelps-Roper’s interest here, because there were more people to listen to what she is saying there is a higher chance of someone listening. Online social platforms allowed her to spread her current views, but at the same time it let her hear other people’s way of life and their views which were different from hers. Because of her strict religion and family values, she would only ever get advice from her mother and other people with similar views, but social media allowed her to branch out and hear how other people live, which urged her to make a change in her life that she probably wouldn’t have made without influence from others on social media.
1) When I look at the people I am following on social media, I can see people I am close friends with in real life and on social media, some people who I know in person but I am not close with, and some that I only interact with online.
When I look at the people I am following on social media, I can see a clear distinction between the people I interact with on a personal basis, and those I do not.
2) This shows the beginning of the idea of balance. She met them online but over a phone screen you cannot replicate actual human interaction.
This shows the balance between online and in-person interaction, the communication through a screen only can do so much, the rest needs to happen face-to-face.
3) Social media was in Phelps-Roper’s interest here, because there were more people to listen to what she is saying there is a higher chance of someone listening.
Social media was in Phelps-Roper’s interest here because it was an outlet for her to express her views to a larger number of people. The bigger the group of people, the higher the chance of someone listening to what you’re saying.
When approaching the local revisions for this paragraph, one of my first thoughts was on how long it is. Typically this is something I would notice when going back and editing a paper but clearly I missed this in my first revision process. Because there is so much to talk about when analyzing an essay I tried to pack it all into one paragraph and that was where I went wrong here. I tend to have a problem with wordiness in my writing and that is what my first revision revolved around. There was an unnecessary number of words trying to express my thoughts so I took all of those out and put it into a more concise way of saying the same thing. My second revision was to a sentence that didn’t make sense when I read it, something that could have been caught by reading the paragraph out loud to myself because then I can really hear where I can use better wording in my sentences. My third revision was similar to my second, when I really listened to how this sentence sounded something just didn’t work. I changed the wording of the sentence to flow better to help the reader understand my thoughts better than they were able to before.
