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1.3 Practices

1.3.1 Practice on Evaluating Arguments

Use the five criteria for good arguments and evaluate if the following argument matches those criteria or not.Write your evaluation in at least 200 words and in paragraph format.

The Age of the Selfie: Taking, Sharing Our Photos Shows Empowerment, Pride 2

Adrienne Sarasy

About the author: Adrienne Sarasy was a student at Healdsburg High School and an editor-in-chief of the school’ s newspaper, The Hound s Bark .This article appeared in this newspaper in February 2014 and was reprinted in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on March 9,2014.

With the proliferation of social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,there has been a whirlwind of photos cataloging people’ s lives, meals and, most importantly, appearances.

Selfies, most often those of women and girls, can be found within any popular social media site.The idea behind the selfie is to capture a photo in which you feel extraordinary, beautiful and confident, and share it with the world.In fact, it is an act of pride and even empowerment for those who post these selfies.

However, this empowerment is viewed by some selfie-critics as a narcissistic act of self-indulgence.Indeed, by taking a photo of yourself and posting it into the world of social media, you may give off the impression that you are attention-seeking and selfabsorbed, but who doesn’t enjoy the compliments and feeling of receiving a significant amount of likes on a photo?

As individuals, we are inherently attention-seeking, whether we like to think so or not.We seek attention in all aspects of the ways in which we present ourselves to society.More often than not, this venture toward attention is interpreted as a form of self-expression and uniqueness, but it still is rooted within the same soil of selfindulgence.The selfie allows those who take selfies to pro-claim their confidence and love for themselves via the Internet, while redefining the ways in which society defines beauty as a whole.

A recent Dove campaign harnessed the power of the selfie to address the growing issues involving low self-esteem in teens and young women.

In this campaign, they interviewed teenage girls and their mothers, and asked them to define their own, personal beauty.The majority of the girls and their mothers addressed their unique attributes as their flaws, feeling that these flaws failed to make them beautiful.

Big eyebrows, red cheeks, frizzy hair, and freckles were just some of the attributes which these girls wanted to alter themselves.The girls picked these features because they did not fit the criteria of “normal beauty,” which society and the fashion industry have established as the anorexic, photoshopped faces of models.They felt they themselves were not beautiful.Yet through the employment of the selfie, Dove showed the girls and their mothers where true beauty lies—not in the photoshopped figures of models, but in the faces of real women.

The power behind the selfie is far greater than simply that of narcissism.In truth,the selfie has proliferated the images of real people who have found beauty within their own skin, rather than carefully edited images of supermodels.They are these images,these selfies, which are working to redefine the ways in which society views beauty.Selfies from people young and old, male and female are the catalysts to change the established notions of beauty as a whole, and are the entities which will improve selfesteem and confidence within this generation of Google babies.

So maybe selfies seem self-indulgent, and a tad annoying on your Instagram feed,but when the true power of the selfie is harnessed, the ways in which society perceives and defines beauty will forever be altered for the better.

1.3.2 Practice on Examining Kind of Argument

Using the continuum in this chapter and examine what kind of argument is the following argument.First, identify the kind of argument and then support your point with evidence.Write your answer in at least 200 words and in paragraph format.

The Age of the Selfie: Endless Need to Share Tears Society’s Last Shred of Decency 3

Robert Wilcox

About the author: Robert Wilcox was a senior at Healdsburg High School and editor of the school’ s newspaper, The Hound s Bark .This article first appeared in February 2014 and was reprinted in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on March 9,2014.This article evaluates the Selfie epidemic as dangerous to both reputation and physical well-being.

The epidemic known as “the selfie” is destroying the last shreds of decency in our society.“Selfie” was Oxford Dictionaries ’ word of the year in 2013, and is defined as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

The very fact that the word “selfie” is now in the dictionary—not to mention that it is word of the year—is a disgrace.Even worse is the speed and ferocity with which this terrible trend has consumed the lives of millions of people.

Since the creation of mega-social sites like Facebook and Twitter, the Internet has gradually transformed us to an exhibitionist and self-obsessed people, who feel the need to share every single aspect of their daily lives with the world.Girls post promiscuous pictures of themselves dressed in risqué outfits, guys flex in the mirror half-naked, and many more reveal intimate aspects of their lives that could potentially endanger both their reputation and their physical well-being.The first thing selfie fanatics need to realize is that almost no one else in the world cares to see photos of them at all, let alone selftaken pixelated portraits taken with a smartphone camera.I know it’s hard to believe, but really, we don’t care if you just got out of the shower, or if you’ve been working out!

By broadcasting racy images of yourself on all of your social net-working accounts,not only are you annoying all of your friends, you are opening up your life to the rest of the world, which can be dangerous.Though you may think that “ special some-one” is admiring the close-up of your lips that you just took, it may actually be some creep in his basement doing God knows what with all of your pictures.It is scary to think about how many people can see all of your photos on the Internet; do you really want the entire world to be able to see the innermost workings of your daily lives?

The danger of releasing these photos of yourself becomes more apparent on a daily basis.Social media sites now post the location and time your photos were taken, giving anyone—including predators—access to very personal information, like where you live and your daily routines.The consequences of posting selfies could be much greater than you ever imagined; some-one could rob your home when they know you are out, or even find and kidnap you based on the location of that “harmless” photo you just took.

This issue of exhibitionism not only extends to selfies, but to the rest of our social networking lives as well.The societal trend of documenting our entire lives on the Internet is becoming more prevalent, and it’s more of an issue than most people think.Every second, millions of people tweet about their mundane lives, parents post photos of their children on Facebook, and countless others upload selfies to Instagram.Why is it so important that everyone else in the world knows every nuance of your daily life?

While it is generally virtuous to be “an open book,” in this case we need to be more protective of our personal information.Releasing pictures and detailed information about yourself can be dangerous, and even if you are never subject to these dangers, it is an extremely annoying habit.If you are a chronic selfie taker, do yourself and the rest of your friends a favor; stop taking close-ups of your face.

1.3.3 Practice on Dialoguing with an Argument

After reading the above two articles on the issue of selfie, you should have realized that the two essays present two different opinions.What kind of audience does the first article target and is it convincing to this audience? Is the first article convincing to you?What kind of audience does the second article target and is it convincing to this audience? Is the second article convincing to you? Which argument is more convincing to you? If neither is convincing, what is your position on this issue? Be clear about your position and remember to support your position with evidence and reasoning.Write at least 300 words and in paragraph format. 4PYkRC8IE2CAJ18ycIC1oV4fYWnBqd/dhJnfh8TqgSrjuWUgKudi2BMG+MdnZqVU

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