Rhetorical Analysis Of I Keep My Relationship Offline By Anna Goldfarb

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Relationships are not bad. It is a normal part of life to fall in love with someone and want to show them off to the world. Anna Goldfarb, however, in an editorial for the Washington Post, declared otherwise. Through the use of rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques, Anna Goldfarb’s article “I keep my relationship offline. It’s better that way” ineffectively conveys that over sharing relationships online is a negative habit. Anna Goldfarb believes she can write about relationships because she is an editor of a humor blog about dating. Considering the name of the blog is “Schmitten Kitten” it doesn’t add much to her credibility. She is an advice columnist for “The Frisky” and the author of a memoir, “Clearly I Didn’t Think This Through.” …show more content…

First, her anecdotes are far too personal to relate to any readers. She talks about her lonelier days, where she would “. . . hide the posts outright, zapping them off the page with a few clicks,” when her readers comment below that they don’t mind, and in fact, enjoy, seeing the occasional cute couple picture. Goldfarb also tries to persuade her readers using loaded words and language. She paints herself as a cool hipster-esque socialite. She talks about how she regrets sharing tender moments with her beau as he “sipped a cappuccino at [their] local coffee shop” and letting her followers catch a glimpse of “[his] hands dripping honey on the manchego cheese.” She carefully crafted her words to create an air of mystery and urban flair, but only succeeded in making herself look pretentious and self centered. One of her readers decided to tactfully remind her in the comments section, “Did you really think your readers wanted to know about your personal life at all?” She uses a more emotionally loaded fallacy, bandwagon appeal, to force her audience into seeing her side. She carefully put in little quips like how posting about her significant other would make her look like a “vapid girlfriend” heading straight off into “relationship land” which she eloquently described as “. . .an upscale gastropub where you get to split appetizers and dessert for the rest of your life.” She focuses on the hatred she personally