Is Facebook Making Us Lonely Summary

In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” author Stephen Marche thesis is “Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggest that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society.” Marche goes into tons of detail on everything included on this thesis, in the passage. The thesis placed at the very beginning of the piece, at the top, also in a different font as to catch the reader’s attention immediately, and let them grasp what this article is going to be about. Marche uses loads of evidence to support his claim such as ethos, pathos, and logos. All his evidence can fit into these three techniques.

These are both examples of ethos and used to help make the article more reliable. Pathos is used many times thought the article, for example the story at the beginning, it’s a about an elderly lady dying alone which will pull at “heartstrings” Marches includes phrases like “lonesome death”, “With no children, no religious group, and no immediate social circle of any kind”, and “grotesque death”. This is not the only place pathos is used; Marche incorporates emotional phrases copious places throughout the article, which help the reader relate themselves to the writing. Some examples in the article of this is “We are living in an isolation”, “so quaint, so charmingly mothering”, and “The problem, then, is that we invite loneliness, even though it makes us miserable.” Logos, which given in this article through facts and statistics, benefits the reader, with further knowledge on the topic. Marche’s used factual evidence on almost every page of this article; “In the last three months of 2011,