Hour 2: An Addictive Experience

The Binge Breaker offers an interesting view on the extremely pressing topic of technological ethics in todays society. The unique points about this article are the audience it attempts to reach, the purpose the writer has and specifically how the author attempts to make himself credible, in other words the authors ethos.

The author begins addressing his audience right from the start with his hook. In this case he relies on an interesting introductory paragraph as opposed to summary of the entire paper. The benefit of this is it that it can grab the attention of readers with less of an attention span or just captivate casual readers in a shorter amount of time. Also if the introduction were to summarize the article or paper like an academic journal, it might not appeal to the average reader who just wants to glance at a brief article and maybe glean a couple facts. By examining the way the author attempts to hook the audience we can see that he is targeting a younger demographic that is more in touch with technology. I am a part of this younger demographic because my generation is more or less, the first generation to grow up with such advanced technology and it has radically affected my life and my peers lives.

The author supports his thesis and makes himself seem credible at the same time. In order to build ethos he constantly states the names and positions of people that he has interviewed. This makes him see more credible because he is getting first hand accounts from some of the most important people that have worked on the technology that he is writing about. At the same time his evidence is convincing because it is from these people that have worked in such high up positions in Silicon Valley that it would be hard to deny their insider information.

The writers basic beliefs and values do partly cross with my own because of the topic he is talking about. The idea of being attached to your devices because these companies are playing on your mind and "hijacking" your brain does seem ethically wrong no matter how you look at it. I feel as though this issue should be brought to light and that is exactly what the author is doing. So in this sense the text hasn't changed my thinking towards this topic radically, if anything it has just furthered my beliefs that what these companies do in some cases should definitely be under regulation that has yet to catch up with the rapidly evolving field of technology.

My purpose for reading this was much like the authors purpose for writing this, to see insider opinions on the idea of technology being forced onto people in society today. I think it is definitely an interesting and hot topic to hit on if you're a journalist and a relevant topic to read about if you want to stay current.