Breakthrough Writer: Updated for 3-7-16: "The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships," "The Flight from Conversation," and Mixed Sentence Structure

Essay Options for Essay #3 Due 3-23-16

One. Essay Option for "Green Guilt":

In a typed essay with a Works Cited page, support, refute, or complicate Asma's assertion that "self-cruelty is necessary and good for society."

Two. Essay Option for "Prudence Or Cruelty?"

In a 4-page essay with 3 sources, support, refute, or complicate Kristof's argument in "Prudence Or Cruelty?" that in spite of the food stamp abuses cited by opponents of the food stamp program, providing food stamps for the poor is moral and economic imperative over the long term. Be sure to have a counterargument and rebuttal section at the end of your essay.

Three. Essay Option for "Understanding Black Patriotism"

Defend, refute, or complicate the assertion that critical patriotism, the kind that Dyson attributes to great African American thinkers, is a superior variety of patriotism to the white jingoism described in the essay.

Four. Essay Option for Obesity and Eating Disorders

Addressing at least two essays we've covered in class, support, refute, or complicate the argument that overeating, anorexia, and other eating disorders are not the result of a disease but are habits of individual circumstance and economics.

Five. Essay Option for Social Media and Its Alleged Pathologies

Addressing Sherry Turkle, Curtis Silver (444), Keith O'Brien (464) and other writers covered in class, support, refute, or complicate the argument that social media is the cause of major social pathologies. Specifically, does Sherry Turkle exaggerate the link between social media and social pathology, or is her analysis insightful and convincing? Explain in an argumentative essay.

A Closer, More Detailed Look at the Writing Assignment

The essays in Chapter 6 address the alleged pathologies resulting from social media. These pathologies include an empathy deficit, narcissism, shortened attention span, online shaming, and even altered brain development.

In an argumentative essay, support, refute, or complicate the assertion that social media is harmful for our social, cultural and intellectual development. You will need 3 sources for your Works Cited page.

Possible Refutation Source:

The New Yorker Essay About How Kids Don't Read Takes the "Get Off My Lawn Genre" to New Depths by Katy Waldman

Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:

This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.

You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.

You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

At least one source must be from an ECC library database.

At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.

At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.

The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

This paper will be approximately 4-5 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.

You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.

You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Your paper must be logically organized and focused.

Here is the EBSCO Host Video Tutorial for finding El Camino database sources.

You can find EBSCO Host on A-Z List of Links

On EBSCO Master Premier I looked up some sample searches:

"facebook depression"

"Internet attention span"

"social media empathy deficit"

"facebook loneliness"

Here are the steps you take to use El Camino database (or just type El Camino Library Database):

One. Go on El Camino College website.

Two. Click on Library.

Three. Click on Schauerman Library.

Four. Click on Database Access.

Five. Click on A-Z List of Databases.

Six. Click on one of the three EBSCO host links.

Seven. Limit results to Full Text.

Eight. Put in your key search words.

Nine. Click on HTML or PDF Full Text.

Ten. For you MLA Works Cited, click on Cite MLA under Tools whenever available. Cite is fourth from top for PDF. It's clearly labeled with HTML.

Try with "social media depression."

“The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” by Curtis Silver

One. How have friendships been degraded in the age of social media?

Once built on sacrifice, commitment, loyalty, and deep bonds, friendships, now redefined in the age of social media, have become more of a notion of metrics (“how many friends you have?”) than traditional characteristics that define friendship.

With the new metrics system of having over 1,000 friends, one is hoarding huge numbers for bragging rights rather than forging life-lasting connections based on effort and reciprocity.

Social media friendships are largely defined by the lack of effort to maintain them with a “like” button.

We’re now hoarding friends rather than cultivating friendships. We become degraded into petty-brained narcissists in the process.

According the Dunbar Number Theory, we can maintain 150 friendships in social media. Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist, based his number on a 1990s primate study. That study is now applied to social networks.

Two. Why does Curtis Silver disagree with the Dunbar Number Theory of 150?

For one, social networks are constantly shifting so we don’t even know who our “friends” are, or are not, at any given time.

For two, Dunbar’s theory was based on personal relationships, not online ones. We may be able to apply Dunbar’s theory to a certain point, but probably a lower number.

For three, there's a point where too many choices of friendship interaction kills all the choices. We become overwhelmed and retreat from making any choice at all.

Three. Curtis Silver asks the question, “What is a friend?”

Silver quotes the Oxford dictionary: It is “a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations.”

The problem with social media “friends” is that any mutual affection proves to be too minute or insignificant.

To use a cliché I like, with social media connections there is too often “not enough skin in the game.” In other words, nothing is really at stake in these online friendships.

Four. Have friendships been diminishing before social media?

We read that in fact they have. Silver writes, “According to a 2006 study in the journal American Sociological Review, Americans have been suffering a loss in number and quality of friendships since 1985. The study states that 25% of Americans have no close friends, and the average of that overall per person has dropped from four to two. . . .”

Studies I’ve read about income inequality in America have pointed to the late 1970s and early 1980s as a turning point in which Americans had to fight harder to join the middle class. Perhaps working more jobs and in general being too busy for friends is a factor. In other words, perhaps economics is a cause of dwindling friendships.

“Dude, I’m too busy for friends. I’m too busy taking care of business.”

If this is true, then social media isn’t the cause of diminished friendships; it’s the symptom of economic hardship.

Five. What is the connection between social media and “sharing”?

Silver suggests that we share too much private information on social media so that intimate personal details are no longer sacred or special and that experiencing some sort of degraded intimacy with our “friends,” we stop connecting on a deep level with our real friends.

We could call this Sharing Fatigue, which reveals a pathological contradiction: We’re compelled like addicts to share all our private stuff on one hand but on the other hand we’re numb to all the sharing we do. Sharing Fatigue turns us into zombies.

Silver suggests that this zombie state degrades our concern for others and that it’s more difficult to be a real friend who is “grounded in a concern” for the other friend.

Additionally, all the social media sharing we do is too often less about making a connection with others and more about advertising “The Big Me,” to use a term coined by David Brooks who laments our digital age of self-aggrandizement and general boasting.

Six. What is the effect of our existence in a large matrix of social connections called “friends”?

We are now performing for this large audience and as we perform, cultivating an image for “our fans,” we lose empathy, develop narcissism, and become lost in an image that is disconnected from our true selves.

In an earlier chapter about celebrity culture, we studied the disconnect between celebrity and personhood.

Would a social critic be justly accused of bombast and hyperbole for pointing out that cut off from empathy and creeping toward narcissism and solipsism we’re heading into some mass psychosis? I’ll leave it for you to decide.

I will tell you that I’ve spoken with some students who tell me they not only have time for real friends; they don’t have time for social media as well, to the point that they don’t have a Facebook account or any other similar form of social media. Perhaps their being too busy works in their favor.

The Atlantic article, "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" could be a research link.

Another worthy research link is The New Yorker article "How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy."

"The Flight from Conversation" by Sherry Turkle

Student Essay That Addresses Turkle's Essay

Critique of Turkle's Essay

Sherry Turkle's Video Summary

One. We're letting tech take us places we don't want to go.

She's talking about a psychological state, a demonic state, in which we date the angel that turns out to be the devil.

Two. Tech devices change not just what we are but who we are.

Tech is compromising our humanity, our friendships, our ability to enjoy solitude, and our skills at self-reflection.

Three. Crazy, dysfunctional behavior is the new normal.

For example, many text while giving eye contact, a sort of phony connecting.

We text at church, funerals, and sacred places. We take "salvation selfies" as we emerge from the baptism water.

We hang out at Starbucks for five hours and say the next day what a great time we had when in fact we we're "alone together" on our smartphones.

Four. We aspire to the "Goldilocks effect": not too close, not too far.

In other words, we want control of our environment. We prefer control to the messy lack of control from real human interaction.

We no longer want real conversations that take place in real time and that cannot be controlled. Texting becomes the preferred option.

In extreme cases, we're willing to dispense with people and prefer Siri or sociable robots.

Five. We take little sips of tweets and posts and other data bites and the hope is that eventually all these little sips will lead to one big nutritional gulp. But this hope is built on a canard. All we have is nothing.

Six. Our escape from conversation compromises the skills that also help us in self-reflection.

People who converse well also self-reflect well, and the opposite is true.

Seven. We expect more from technology and less from each other.

We need the latest upgrades and refreshes and innovations in tech even as we keep more and more people at a distance.

Eight. We're lonely, but we're afraid of intimacy.

Intimacy requires honesty, loss of control, and vulnerability, but the rewards are humor, emotional completeness, and life fullness.

We're averse to the demands of friendship, which require commitment, loss of control, and vulnerability.

Nine. We suffer from "alone anxiety."

We can't be at a red light without checking texts and Facebook status.

We connect through texting and other ways not as a sign of our fullness as human beings but from a place of fear, fragmentation, desperation, loneliness, and angst (the restless anxiety that results from not knowing who we are, from having no purpose, and from languishing in the existential vacuum).

Turkle says "connection is a symptom, not a cure" for our sense of loneliness.

The more we connect, the more desperate we become, which in turn compels us to connect even more. This addiction becomes a vicious cycle.

Ten. Turkle says, "I share; therefore I am."

This is a delusion. Sharing is an expression of fragmentation and desperation and the loss of selfhood.

Turkle observes, "We're using people as spare parts to repair our fragile and broken selves."

Eleven. Turkle's secret sauce to the human condition is this: Solitude is the prerequisite for real connection.

"If we can't be alone, we'll be more lonely." We need to learn to be alone, and that means not sharing all the time on social media.

Thesis Response

In today’s digital age, it may be true that we suffer from an empathy deficit, narcissism, shortened attention span, and online shaming; however, these pathologies are less the cause of social media than the symptoms of a dystopian culture built on income inequality evidenced by _______________, ________________, ______________, and ____________________.

Another Thesis Response

While income inequality is surely the cause of some of our social pathologies, we have to attribute even more of the blame on social media such as Facebook, which is responsible for __________________, __________________, _________________, and ________________________.

What are causes of our loneliness and disconnection other than social media?

Moving into the suburbs

Growing debt equals more work hours.

Sub-living wages equals more work hours.

Anxiety and stress of "trying to stay afloat" impedes time and money for social life.

Addictive personalities will find whatever is available to feed their addiction. All addictive behavior leads to isolation and disconnection.

We live in an addictive society. Social media and consumerism have joined forces to make us addicts.

What can we attribute to Facebook as a misery cause?

It encourages the envy from social comparison and FOMO (fear of missing out).

But can we blame Facebook if we have let it become our default when we're looking for connection?

Do we confuse connection with real bonds? What's the difference?

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure

Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.

Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.

Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb

Faulty

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.

Corrected

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.

Faulty

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.

Corrected

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.

Faulty

Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.

Corrected

The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.

Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause

Faulty

When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.

Corrected

Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.

Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction

Faulty

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.

Corrected

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.

Faulty

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.

Corrected

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.

Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over

Faulty

In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.

Corrected

In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.

Faulty

Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.

Corrected

Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.

Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.

Faulty

We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.

Corrected

We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.

Faulty

Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.

Corrected

Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.

Faulty

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.

Corrected

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.

Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent

Faulty

The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Corrected

Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.

Faulty

Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.

Corrected

Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.

Faulty

A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.

Corrected

A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.

Faulty

The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Corrected

I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Faulty

The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.

Corrected

I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.

In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:

One. Verb after a prepositional phrase

Two. Verb after a dependent clause

Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.

Five. Faulty predication

Six: Faulty apposition

Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses

Birthdays that land on a Monday are a bummer.

Birthdays, which can be costly, are overrated.

Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary.

One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.

Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system.

Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.

Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles.

Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week.

Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.

Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement.

Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize.

Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels.

Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major.

Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice.

Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports.

Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit.

Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes.

Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.

Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success.

Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started.

Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment.

Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.

Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.

Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.

Identifying Claims and Analyzing Arguments from Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky’s From Inquiry to Academic Writing, Third Edition

We’ve learned in this class that we can call a thesis a claim, an assertion that must be supported with evidence and refuting counterarguments.

There are 3 different types of claims: fact, value, and policy.

Claims of Fact

According to Greene and Lidinsky, “Claims of fact are assertions (or arguments) that seek to define or classify something or establish that a problem or condition has existed, exists, or will exist.

For example, Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow argues that Jim Crow practices that notoriously oppressed people of color still exist in an insidious form, especially in the manner in which we incarcerate black and brown men.

In The Culture Code Rapaille argues that different cultures have unconscious codes and that a brand’s codes must not be disconnected with the culture that brand needs to appeal to. This is the problem or struggle that all companies have: being “on code” with their product. The crisis that is argued is the disconnection between people’s unconscious codes and the contrary codes that a brand may represent.

Many economists, such as Paul Krugman, argue that there is major problem facing America, a shrinking middle class, that is destroying democracy and human freedom as this country knows it. Krugman and others will point to a growing disparity between the haves and have-nots, a growing class of temporary workers that surpasses all other categories of workers (warehouse jobs for online companies, for example), and de-investment in the American labor force as jobs are outsourced in a world of global competition.

All three examples above are claims of fact. As Greene and Lidinsky write, “This is an assertion that a condition exists. A careful reader must examine the basis for this kind of claim: Are we truly facing a crisis?”

We further read, “Our point is that most claims of fact are debatable and challenge us to provide evidence to verify our arguments. They may be based on factual information, but they are not necessarily true. Most claims of fact present interpretations of evidence derived from inferences.”

A Claim of Fact That Seeks to Define Or Classify

Greene and Lidinsky point out that autism is a controversial topic because experts cannot agree on a definition. The behaviors attributed to autism “actually resist simple definition.”

There is also disagreement on a definition of obesity. For example, some argue that the current BMI standards are not accurate.

Another example that is difficult to define or classify is the notion of genius.

In all the cases above, the claim of fact is to assert a definition that must be supported with evidence and refutations of counterarguments.

Claims of Value

Greene and Lidinsky write, “A claim of fact is different from a claim of value, which expresses an evaluation of a problem or condition that has existed, exists, or will exist. Is a condition good or bad? Is it important or inconsequential?

In other words, the claim isn’t whether or not a crisis or problem exists: The emphasis is on HOW serious the problem is.

How serious is global warming?

How serious is gender discrimination in schools?

How serious is racism in law enforcement and incarceration?

How serious is the threat of injury for people who engage in Cross-Fit training?

How serious are the health threats rendered from providing sodas in public schools?

How serious are Brand codes and their connection or disconnection with the consumer’s unconscious codes?

Claims of Policy

Greene and Lidinsky write, “A claim of policy is an argument for what should be the case, that a condition should exist. It is a call for change or a solution to a problem.

Examples

We must decriminalize drugs.

We must increase the minimum wage to X per hour.

We must have stricter laws that defend worker rights for temporary and migrant workers.

We must integrate more autistic children in mainstream classes.

We must implement universal health care.

If we are to keep capital punishment, then we must air it on TV.

We must implement stricter laws for texting while driving.

The Importance of Using Concession with Claims

Greene and Lidinsky write, “Part of the strategy of developing a main claim supported with good reasons is to offer a concession, an acknowledgment that readers may not agree with every point the writer is making. A concession is a writer’s way of saying, ‘Okay, I can see that there may be another way of looking at the issue or another way to interpret the evidence used to support the argument I am making.’”

“Often a writer will signal a concession with phrases like the following:”

“It is true that . . .”

“I agree with X that Y is an important factor to consider.”

“Some studies have convincingly shown that . . .”

Identify Counterarguments

Greene and Lidinsky write, “Anticipating readers’ objections demonstrates that you understand the complexity of the issue and are willing at least to entertain different and conflicting opinions.”

Developing a Thesis

Greene and Lidinsky write that a thesis is “an assertion that academic writers make at the beginning of what they write and then support with evidence throughout their essay.” They then give the thesis these attributes:

Makes an assertion that is clearly defined, focused, and supported.

Reflects an awareness of the conversation from which the writer has taken up the issue.

Is placed at the beginning of the essay.

Penetrates every paragraph like the skewer in a shish kebab.

Acknowledges points of view that differ from the writer’s own, reflecting the complexity of the issue.

Demonstrates an awareness of the readers’ assumptions and anticipates possible counterarguments.

Conveys a significant fresh perspective.

Working and Definitive Thesis

In the beginning, you develop a working or tentative thesis that gets more and more revised and refined as you struggle with the evidence and become more knowledgeable of the subject.

A writer who comes up with a thesis that remains unchanged is not elevating his or her thinking to a sophisticated level.

Only a rare genius could spit out a meaningful thesis that defies revision.

Not just theses, but all writing is subject to multiple revisions. For example, the brilliant TV writers for 30 Rock, The Americans, and The Simpsons make hundreds of revisions for just one scene and even then they’re still not happy in some cases.

Four Models for Developing a Working Thesis

The Correcting-Misinterpretations Model

According to Greene and Lidinsky, “This model is used to correct writers whose arguments you believe have misconstrued one or more important aspects of an issue. This thesis typically takes the form of a factual claim.

Examples of Correcting-Misinterpretation Model

Although LAUSD teachers are under fire for poor teaching performance, even the best teachers have been thrown into abysmal circumstances that defy strong teaching performance evidenced by __________________, ___________________, ________________, and _____________________.

Even though Clotaire Rapaille is venerated as some sort of branding god, a close scrutiny exposes him as a shrewd self-promoter who relies on several gimmicks including _______________________, _______________________, _________________, and ___________________.

The Filling-the-Gap Model

Greene and Lidinsky write, “The gap model points to what other writers may have overlooked or ignored in discussing a given issue. The gap model typically makes a claim of value.”

Example

Many psychology experts discuss happiness in terms of economic wellbeing, strong education, and strong family bonds as the essential foundational pillars of happiness, but these so-called experts fail to see that these pillars are worthless in the absence of morality, as Eric Weiners’s study of Qatar shows, evidenced by __________________, __________________, ___________________, and _____________________.

The Modifying-What-Others-Have-Said Model

Greene and Lidinsky write, “The modification model of thesis writing assumes that mutual understanding is possible.” In other words, we want to modify what many already agree upon.

Example

While most scholars agree that food stamps are essential for hungry children, the elderly, and the disabled, we need to put restrictions on EBT cards so that they cannot be used to buy alcohol, gasoline, lottery tickets, and other non-food items.

The Hypothesis-Testing Model

The authors write, “The hypothesis-testing model begins with the assumption that writers may have good reasons for supporting their arguments, but that there are also a number of legitimate reasons that explain why something is, or is not, the case. . . . That is, the evidence is based on a hypothesis that researchers will continue to test by examining individual cases through an inductive method until the evidence refutes that hypothesis.”

For example, some researchers have found a link between the cholesterol drugs, called statins, and lower testosterone levels in men. Some say the link is causal; others say the link is correlative, which is to say these men who need to lower their cholesterol already have risk factors for low T levels.

As the authors continue, “The hypothesis-testing model assumes that the questions you raise will likely lead you to multiple answers that compete for your attention.”

The authors then give this model for such a thesis:

Some people explain this by suggesting that, but a close analysis of the problem reveals several compelling, but competing explanations.

Final Essay

In an argumentative essay, support, refute, or complicate the assertion that social media is harmful for our social, cultural and intellectual development. Be sure to address at least two essays from Chapter 6. One of the essays can be used as a source. You will need at least 4 other sources for a total of 5 sources.