Villarreal 1

Andres Villarreal

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English 1301 - 119

9 November 2022

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Social media has become something the world revolves around everyday. Through the past

few years, its usage has increased, leading people to have addictions toward it. This was especially

seen during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue has caught the attention of researchers

as these addictions have caused negative effects on people physically and psychologically (Nur -A

Yazdani, et al, 1). Dewan Muhammad Nur -A Yazdani and other authors have contributed to this

study and wrote an article titled, “Social media addiction and emotions during the disaster recovery

period - The moderating role of post-COVID timing”. This article focuses on the increase of

addictions to social media in the country of Bangladesh after the COVID-19 pandemic and the

effect it has had on the mental state of people in this present day. The purpose of this essay is to

analyze the rhetorical effectiveness the article has in this study. After reading it, it is obvious to see

how this article gives the audience a clear understanding of this issue. Its use of rhetorical appeals

of ethos, logos, and pathos help deliver the main message across.

This authors’ appeal to ethos in this article is very direct and gives the audience clear and

discrete evidence of the value of its research. At the top of the document, there is a list of the

different departments in which the knowledge of the authors come from, such as the School of

Health Sciences, Western Sydney University and the African Vision Research Institute, South

Africa (Nur -A Yazdani, et al, 1). This proves that these authors come from environments and

fields that specialize in the knowledge of the health of people. Throughout the article, there is much
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discussion about how the pandemic played a major role in the increase in addictions through the

past few years. The authors talk about how the virus directed certain decisions in their lives. There

is a certain section that states,

“Moreover, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by Novel Corona Virus significantly

influences every individual’s life” (Nur -A Yazdani, et al, 2).

Most people would associate these influences in the physical sense, but this quote states it as a

means of affecting both the physical and psychological parts of a person. The authors are trying to

direct the attention of the audience to the fact that the pandemic is one of the major factors in the

increase in social media users and the increase in anxiety.

This article not only uses ethos to convince and get the attention of the audience, but also

uses appeals to logos as evidence to show the percentages of addictions through time. The authors

looked back in the past seven years and discovered that their statistics showed that,

“...the number of social media users has almost doubled, increasing from 2.2 billion in 2015

to 4.5 billion in 2022” (Nur -A Yazdani, et al, 2).

This is more than double the population of people in this short amount of years, and the number

keeps increasing rapidly. The authors also studied the population of internet subscribers in the

country of Bangladesh. They discovered that between the years 2021 and 2022, the population of

internet subscribers increased by 11.6%, which is about 5.5 million people (2). All these findings

are proof that society is now dependent on social media more than ever. Yes, it is a way to be

connected with the updates of the world and with people, but too much of it can have negative

effects. The article proves that COVID-19 has played a major role in the increase of social media

usage as people were stuck in their homes for months with nothing else to do but look at electronic

devices for most of the day.

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Part of the main reason for this article is to explore the emotions these social media users

were feeling as a result of being addicted to it. The authors used this article to show what

experiments and research they did to give the audience a clear understanding of what these people

were feeling. An online administered survey was used during the study which asked questions

involving the subject of social media. It was given to about three thousand five hundred people to

answer. The questions were asking about certain issues such as physical effects, such as headaches

or neck pain and other questions were asking about mental health complications. There was a

specific question that asked, “What kind of psychological problem do you feel from extensive use

of the Internet?” (Nur -A Yazdani, et al, 5). The people who took the survey answered “yes” to

anxiety and fear as a result of extensive use of the internet (5). If all these people have answered

yes to these emotions, that means that there is a greater number of people all around Bangladesh

who are suffering from anxiety and fear, which can affect them as a person from participating in

society. The article also talks about other effects the internet has on a person’s mind. It talks about

how it can cause productivity issues, such as getting exercise or studying for school. It also

mentions relationship issues with family and friends. The authors describe how the emotion of fear

could have come mostly from the effectiveness of the COVID-19 virus. Viewing news updates

from social media of how dangerous and easy it is to be infected could have sparked an increase of

fear in citizens (3). All these components play into the negative effects of social media addiction to

a person’s mental well being. Through the article, the authors are trying to help the audience

understand the feeling of fear and anxiety that can come from too much use of the internet.

As a result, Dewan Muhammad Nur -A Yazdani and other authors have created this article

to show the cost that an addiction to social media has on a person’s mental health and life. This

article succeeds in providing this information, which helps the reader feel informed and properly
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notified of the crisis that is happening in the country of Bangladesh, and can help them think about

limiting the amount of time they put on the internet. The article’s appeals to ethos, logos, and

pathos give the article a better feel and understanding. Social media is a good resource to use, but

abusing it can lead to unbearable consequences that can affect a person's mind and overall well

being.
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References

Nur -A Yazdani, Dewan, et al. “Social media addiction and emotions during the disaster recovery

period—The moderating role of post-COVID timing.” PLOS, 20 October 2022,

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274898. Accessed 4

November 2022.