Blog 1

Foss, Foss and Trapp define rhetoric as "the human use of symbols to communicate." (1) I believe that this is true, however, I don't believe that this just applies to the human use of symbols. Animals can use some sort of rhetoric, also. Look at Chimpanzee's for example, they can recite our movements exactly. Why wouldn't they be able to learn how to communicate with symbols? I mean, they can learn symbols and colors. Why not teach them sign language or other forms of symbol communication? It amazes me how many examples there are out there of rhetoric. Not only that, but how very much connected communication and symbols connect to everyday life. There is an example in the text where they say, “Every word choice we make-every perspective we choose to apply- results in seeing the world one way or another.” (Foss, Foss and Trapp 2) I work with children everyday, and it is amazing how they hang on every word that a teacher says, or how quick their mood can change just by the tone of your voice. Words are, in a way, symbols used to describe moods or feelings.
I am in no means a technical person. I have no brains when it comes to the Internet or computers. One digital culture I do participate in however is Facebook. I was a traitor to Myspace, and switched to Facebook, which by the way are not even close to being the same. Just take a minute and think. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, live.journal, all of these social networks are everywhere! I get on a website and on the top of the screen are the links to the above mentioned. I can open up a magazine and count each time an article or a statistic about one of the above mentioned social networks. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining because I, too, am one of the millions of people obsessed with the sites. Even when you get off the Internet, these sites are everywhere. Walk into a classroom and listen for an hour to the conversations that people are having. Many of the sentences start with, “OMG, so I was on face book last night…” or “So I was tweeting with so and so…” after a while all the hype has to go down, and these social networks because a normal way of life.


Works Cited

Foss, Sonja, Karen Foss, and Robert Trapp. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric. Third Edition. Waveland Press, INC, 1-15. Print.