Related Readings
Curtin, Melanie. “Bill Gates Says This Is the 'Safest' Age to Give a Child a Smartphone.” Inc.com, Inc., 10 May 2017, www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/bill-gates-says- this-is-the-safest-age-to-give-a-child-a-smartphone.html.
This article, written by Inc writer Melanie Green in 2017, reports that children are getting smartphones at extremely young ages. Green claims that even the founder of Apple, Bill Gates, doesn't allow his children to have smartphones until they are in high school. I used this source to support my 3rd argument, that humor on social media can be dangerous to children. This website provided me with the statistics on the average age children receive a smartphone, which supported my claim that there are a lot of young social media users.
Enough Is Enough. “Enough Is Enough: Cyberbullying.” Enough Is Enough: Cyberbullying, enough.org/stats_cyberbullying.
Enough is Enough is a website that is specifically aimed towards ending cyberbullying and making the internet safe for users again. It contains statistics and studies that show the direct correlation between social media and cyberbullying, while also tying these numbers to suicide rates and depression in children. This article was helpful in enforcing my argument that humor's effect on social media is dangerous to children. By using the statistics on cyberbullying and hospitalization rates due to attempted suicide in children, it increased the urgency in this argument. It helped make the reader realize how serious of a problem this way, and it increase the article's logos by having exact numbers.
Gilmore RO, et al. “Children's Brain Responses to Optic Flow Vary by Pattern Type and Motion Speed.” Plos One, vol. 11, no. 6, 2016, p. 0157911.,
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157911.
This peer-reviewed article, written by RO Gilmore, determines that, after a number of tests, children's brains do not function as frequently or efficiently as adults do. This is due to the fact that they are severely underdeveloped. This fact supports my thesis that humor's effect on social media can be dangerous to children. Because children's brains are not fully developed, they are not capable of making the same rational decisions that adults do. This can lead to children misunderstanding or misinterpreting information they see on social media due to it being manipulated to be more humorous. This testing was the evidence required to support my claim that children are not ready to be exposed to that type of behavior.
HelpGuide. “Laughter Is the Best Medicine.” HelpGuide.org, 21 Mar. 2019, www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm/.
This article claims that laughter has numerous health benefits. From small things like increase moods, to big things like decreased cardiovascular risks, laughter is statistically proven to be good for your health mentally and physically. This supported my claim that there is also a good side to humor's effect on social media. The humorous material found of Twitter makes users laugh and brings them joy, which according to these facts, increases overall health.
Kieth A. Carlson. “The Impact of Humor on Memory: Is the Humor Effect About Humor?” Humor - International Journal of Humor Research, vol. 24, no. 1, 2011,
pp. 21–41., doi:10.1515/humr.2011.002.
This peer-reviewed article, written by Kieth A. Carlson, explores humor's affect on memory. Researchers conducted a series of tests, which involved one group memorizing a boring fact, while the other memorized a humorous one. The results showed that the humorous fact was recalled at a higher rate than the boring one. This test provided evidence for my claim that social media users only pay attention to humorous material. It is scientifically proven that people have a higher retention rate of things that are humorous, and when users see things that are not framed in a humorous way on social media, they don't care as much.
Pew Research Center. “Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew
Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 5 Feb. 2018, www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/.
The Pew Research center released this article that delves into the demographics behind smartphone ownership. It provides statistics from all over the world, but mostly importantly, it provides the percentage of Americans who own smartphones and have access to social media. On my About page, I wanted to introduce my topic and show why readers should care about it. To do this, I needed to prove that social media has become one of the biggest platforms, with a high percentage of Americans owning smartphones and having accounts. This statistic gave me the evidence I need to prove how widespread of an issue my topic is.
Scruton, Roger, and Peter Jones. “Laughter.” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, vol. 56, no. 1, 1982, pp. 197–228., doi:10.1093/aristoteliansupp/56.1.197.
This peer-reviewed document, written by Roger Scruton and Peter Jones, explores the philosophy of laughter and the true meaning behind it. They claim that laughter is just a symptom of joy, it doesn't actually mean you are happy. What makes you truly happy is what is making you laugh. There must be some element of joy behind what you are laughing at, or else you are just laughing with no real emotion behind it. I used this claim to support my argument that social media has a good side too. Social media gives us a reason to laugh, it provides us with content that makes us feel amusement and joy. It allows us to laugh with true happiness behind it.
“Twitter. It's What's Happening.” Twitter, Twitter, twitter.com/.
Twitter is a popular source that I drew evidence from for my argument that social media users care more about amount information when it is framed in a positive way. I found tweets from this source that were framed in a boring, straight forward way that received little retweets. I then found tweets that were framed in a humorous way that received thousands of retweets. Without these tweets, I wouldn't have been able to prove to my audience my claim, I would have lacked the evidence to convince them. These tweets gave my audience a visual representation of my argument, which increase the reader's overall understanding and acceptance of my argument