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Sarkis Oganesian

Professor Atkinson

English 101

August 10, 2023

Tech's Impact: Rhetorical Analysis of Two Essays

In the essays “In Defense of Distraction” by Sam Anderson and “How

Smartphones Are Hijacking Our Minds” by Nicholas Carr, both authors address the

impact of technology on human attention and cognition.“In Defense of Distraction”

Anderson discusses how humans are becoming more easily distracted because of the way

we are evolving with technology. Though Anderson argues it is not necessarily bad but

more positive as we are becoming multitasking robots saying we will be able to “conduct

34 conversations simultaneously across six different medias” being able to multitask

more than the previous generation (Anderson). “How Smartphones Are Hijacking Our

Minds” by Nicholas Carr discusses how technology makes us more anxious and

impatient. Carr starts off the essay strong using data from Apple stating that we use our

phone “80 times a day” which effectively strengthens his argument (Carr). Carr starts off

stronger with the use of data proving to the reader directly from the source how we are

already addicted to our smartphones.

Anderson who is the author of: “In Defense of Distraction” discuss how

distraction is not inhernetaly a bad thing but more positive because it leads to

multitasking and knowing the finer details. Anderson has many uses of rhetorical

strategies in his essay like, anecdotes, metacommentary, and the rhetorical triangle, logos,
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pathos, and ethos. His title is a metacommentary already telling us what Anderson is

siding on and believes in, and in his case, he is defending distraction. Anderson uses an

anecdote telling us how whenever Anderson hears jackhammers outside his house,

something you really cannot ignore because of how loud it is, Anderson says he “throws

the window open” and watches then for a while then goes down to talk with them and

snack on sandwiches (Anderson). The use of anecdote tell us how we get easily distracted

because we hear something loud next to us and are cursion and begin to investigate it,

leading us to get distracted.

Anderson talks with David Meyer who is one of the world's reigning experts on

multitasking, they discusses how this new era of technology and devices is affecting us

negatively, and Meyer is saying how technology is making us more “dumb.” Meyer does

agree that doing simple tasks like “folding laundry” and “listenitn to a stock report” is

what he considers actually multitasking due to them being separate senses - separate

channels (Meyer). Further in his essay Anderson uses many sources to strengthen his

claim, the use of logos and ethos, inviting Winifred Gallagher who is an author, to discuss

the idea of distraction, Gallagher had a similar experience before the call. being distracted

because of jackhammers. Further on the Anderson references how nueroscietenist are

obsessed with buddhists and their discipline, “whose attentional discipline can apparently

confer all kinds of benefits, even on non-Buddhists” (Anderson).

Merlin Mann, who is one of lifehackings early adopters is interviewed by Anderon,

another use of ethos and logos, talking about lifehacking and its early success and how

Mann went on to invent hacks like “in-box zero” and “hipster PDA”. Anderson also uses
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pathos in his essay, almost everywhere using statistics or information from other sources

and researches done to convince the reader and sway their thoughts. In Anderson’s

conclusion he comes to let the reader know that as we humas are evolving, distractions

are not necessarily a bad thing, but more positive. We can multitask easier since we are

shifting eras and moving towards a more technology based life where you are always

multitasking, they are distracitons but claims the new technology era will be more

focused.

“How Smartphones Are Hijacking Our Minds” written by Nicholas Carr, discuss

how smartphones are making us more anxious and distracted, as if our smartphone is a

vital organ. Carr’s title is a metacommentary, “How Smartphones Are Hijacking Our

Minds” stating how smartphones are invading our brains and making us more into robots,

something like Skynet in Terminator. Carr has many uses of logos, pathos, and ethos

using data and research in almost every paragraph he has written. Carr starts of his essay

with data from Apple stating we use our phones almost 80 times a day, proving to use

that we are addicted to our phones. In his essay he further delves into other research done

from various sources on how using our phones or even having them near us make us have

a shorter attention span. Using data, he states that when we do not have our phones near

us we perform twice as well as those who have their phones with them, that might be due

to the fact that our phone is a distraction and we are always thinking about it (Carr)

I think Carr does a better job of conveying his point because of the amount of

research and data he has provided. His essay is short, simple, and concise, making it

really easy for the reader to digest the information provided, and and amount of proof he
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also provides strengthens his case. Anderson also does a good job, but I feel like his essay

is more on a personal level than it is an actual research paper. Anderson talks about how

we are becoming multitasking robots, we can multitask on different levels but there is not

enough evidence to prove that. Unlike Carr, who provides new research and evidence for

every paragraph, Carr has a much more well-proven essay in this scenario, unlike

Anderson’s essay.