The Changes Influenced by Social Media in Don’t Be a Stranger, a Persuasive Essay by Adrian Chen

Growing up in the 21st century, technology is the key and foundation to our society. Many individuals have an established viewpoint on how technology influences. People via today's media interactions through various networking. Chen's purpose was to persuade the intended audience to see. That we still limit ourselves and our experience by restricting. And blocking certain people from viewing our Facebook profile or twitter page. Chen does so by using simple word choice, personal experiences to relate to his audience, valid quotes that aided his main point, and by effectively uses all three persuasive techniques; pathos, logos, ethos throughout his article.

Freelance writer Adrian Chen, in his persuasive essay, "Don't Be A Stranger," describes how social media has changed the way we view the meaning of friendship over the years. From strangers becoming instant friends to people blocking does same people that could have been a potential friend. Chen believed and tried to convey the belief through his essay, that creating a true, lifelong friend through the internet and various social medias is quite possible and has been done various times before.

Chen begins by addressing his credibility through his experience with his friend Austin and how that chapter of his life turned into a huge success. He further explains how he met his best friend online after Austin commented on their similarities. Chen claims "It was on this Internet that I met my best friend... At the time I was making stupid comedy videos and I'd share them with Urban Honking as I finished them. Austin was also an active Urban Honking poster, and a few months after I joined he sent me an email from his Yahoo! Mail account" (par 1). They hit it off the moment they met in person and since then, still communicate through the same internet that brought them together.

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Chen continues to also establishes credibility when he quoted a computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider, who supported his claim by stating that, "life will be happier for the online individual, because those with whom one interacts most strongly will be selected more by commonality of interests and goals than by accidents of proximity" (par 9). Scientist Licklider clearly claiming that does individuals that interact online will be the happier population, thereby support Chen's claim.

We can see the uses of emotional connection when Chen states that his friend Austin also met his beloved wife on the internet and they are still together eight years later. Chen writes, "About three years before I met my funny friend Austin on Urban Honking in Portland, Austin met his wife on Makeoutclub.com... And within a few weeks, Austin asked her to marry him. Today, they've been married for over eight years" (par 21). Chen used this example to furthermore support his claim that the internet is a place that you can meet and make a life long connection with a complete stranger.

Chen uses great counterexamples in order to provide evidence of the opposing arguments' use of the fear tactic, which would result in fear emotions from the readers. Chen writes, "in the mid-2000s, media reports might have had you believe that MySpace was essentially an easily searchable catalog of fresh victims for serial killers, rapists, cyberstalkers, and Tila Tequila" (par 4). Chen also writes, "Catfish shows that the fear hasn't vanished with social media's ubiquity, it's just become as banal as the technology itself" (par 5).

Chen's outstanding use of all persuasive techniques, ethos, pathos, and logos assured a solid persuasive position with his audience because of the fact that he made a valid and persuasive argument while using his opponent's argument to his benefit. Chen's article was well written and quite persuasive in a sense that it used all three persuasive techniques to drive its point home.

To conclude, Chen drives his main point home which states that, creating a true lifelong friend through the internet and various social medias is quite possible and have been done various times before. By clearly stating his claim and providing beautiful reasons and examples to back up his point and while doing so, he connected to the readers and persuaded them as well as doing so flawlessly.

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