Spacecat
Answer each question in depth and provide specific evidence from
the text or speaker whenever available. The more you write, the better!
Title of the text:
S
SPEAKER:
Who is the speaker/writer?
What do we know about
them? What can you tell or
what do you know about
the speaker that helps you
understand the point of
view expressed?
P
PURPOSE:
What is the speaker/writer
hoping to accomplish?
What is the reason behind
this piece? What do they
want the audience to do
after having listened?
A
AUDIENCE:
Who is the speaker/writer
trying to reach? How do we
know? Do they indicate a
specific audience? What
assumptions exist in the
text about the intended
audience?
C
CONTEXT:
What is the time and place
of this piece? What is
happening in the world as
it relates to the subject of
the speech or the
speaker/writer?
E
EXIGENCE:
What was the spark or
catalyst that moved the
speaker/writer to
act/write? How did that
event impact the
speaker/writer?
The speaker is Marshall David Jones, a speaker and word poet that travels all over the
world and performs for numerous people and things, such as colleges, high schools,
universities, conferences, companies, and more. He became really popular due to his
famous, highly influential poem “Touchscreen”. Because he is an artist, he connects
with people through technology and social media, showing how his poem
“Touchscreen” represents how he feels as well. He believes what he is saying because
he has felt the similar feeling of becoming less human as he increases his use of
technology.
Marshall David Jones is hoping to show people how the Internet is taking over every
aspect of our lives and that technology can’t replace our need for human interaction
and contact. He wants people to not rely on social media and the Internet as much to
facilitate social interactions because it can’t replace what we need, which is in-person
contact. He wants the audience to focus more on creating social relationships in real
life instead of constantly caring about the amount of friends you have on social media.
We may have less friends than we do on social media, but those friends give us what
we need and crave as human beings.
Marshall David Jones is trying to reach all of the people who use their phones in order
to have relationships with other humans. We know because, throughout his poem, he
talks about people who “spend more time in a world where there are more people
that ‘like’ me” and about people who constantly use social media and update their
status to gain more online friends. He doesn’t really indicate a specific audience, but it
can be inferred that he is talking about people who are dependent on technology to
have social relationships. Assumptions that exist about the intended audience are that
they have little to no social interactions in-person and instead focus all of their efforts
on their social media so they can gain more friends. They try to replace their need for
human interaction through the Internet.
Marshall David Jones delivered this speech at the National Poetry Slam in Boston in
2011. He was part of Team Nuyorican 2011. During that time, many large technology
companies were launching more features, leading to more people depending on the
Internet for their every need. Additionally, more people were using technology to post
things in their daily lives, create social relationships, and advocate for causes they
believe are moral. Overall, more people started relying on the Internet for their every
need instead of on the real world.
Marshall David Jones was probably moved to act based on his own experiences on
how he started relying more on the media for his social connections, which helped
him realize that they were relying on technology as a replacement for human touch.
Due to his realization that we can’t replace technology with human touch, as shown
by the lines “Or I’m so desperate to feel that I hope our Technologies can reverse the
universe until the screens touch me back…”, he decided to speak up on this issue
through a spoken word poem.
C
CHOICES:
What are the rhetorical
choices that the
speaker/writer makes in
the speech? Think about
overall structure, devices,
diction, syntax, etc.
A
APPEALS:
Which of the three
rhetorical appeals (ethos,
logos, pathos) are present
in the text? Where? Why?
T
TONE:
What is the
speaker/author's attitude
toward the subject? Is the
tone the same throughout
the whole piece? Where
does it shift? What
evidence is there to
demonstrate the tone?
Marshall David Jones chose to make his voice sound robotic and act like a robot in
order to show the audience how the increased dependence on technology for our
personal relationships is making us more like robots instead of humans. It helps show
that technology can’t replace humans because it isn’t advanced enough, shown by the
lines “when our technology is advanced enough…to make us human again”. He also
asks redundant questions and uses fragments instead of full sentences to emphasize
how “robotic” technology is and how we need to have actual, in-person social
relationships instead of relying on our phones to replace human touch. He also uses
repetition, such as the repetition of the word “click” and “doesn’t it feel good to
touch?” to get listeners to realize how much they crave human touch, and technology
can never replace it.
Pathos is present in “Touchscreen” because Marshall David Jones causes people to
think about how they feel when they use their phones in regards to social
relationships. His words cause people to think about this usage of technology and
whether they try to replace it with in-person conversations and human touch. He is
trying to invoke feelings of regret in people who try to replace technology with actual
humans and get them to form social relationships in real-life instead of through an
electronic device. Logos are also present through the use of numbers such as “3000
online friends” and only “five in real life”. These appeals help emphasize his point on
how we are drawn to technology to replace our social interactions, but it never can.
The tone of the whole speech is blunt, distant, and serious. He never shifts from this
tone as he is trying to indicate how far technology is from replacing humans. He
showcases bluntness and seriousness by saying lines such as “but with 3000 friends
online only five in real life, why wouldn’t I spend more time in a world where there
are more people that like me?”. This shows how Marshall David Jones is being serious
that we need to change by talking about how we gravitate towards technology even
though it is inhibiting our use of emotions and need for human interaction. He seems
distant as, throughout the whole poem, he doesn’t input any of his own emotions, as
if he were a robot. He shows no feelings when saying things such as “I’m holding my
daughter over a Skype conference call while she’s crying in the crib in the next room”.
This also shows how blunt he is because he says statements such as the previous one
or one about making love to his wife online without regards to anyone’s feelings of
disgust over what he is saying. He is stating the situation as it is to show how we need
to change before we lose our humanity.