Is America dumbing down?.....Blog post #2

How America Is Dumbing Down the Next Generation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacqueline-leo/how-america-is-dumbing-do_b_1234018.html?ref=technology

I was looking through the articles for something I could relate to or agree on and I found, "How America Is Dumbing Down the Next Generation," not something I totally agree on but I can relate to. I have been working with preschool children for four years now and I can see how the generations change day by day. Now instead of giving a child a toy to play and distract him/herself you give them a phone, (not that phone can't have anything that a child can build cognitive skills on) but what about the whole go outside and play and explore.

This article did touch a little about major things we have seen change throughout the years, like the cars each year they integrate new things to their system such as Internet or for example the whole app thing, now we have the so called Smartphones that can do pretty much anything. Her tone of voice was very sarcastic but she did well in explaining and getting through to her point. The different Rhetorical Strategies she used are listed below with an example and explanation of why she used it.

1. Symbol "My house and my car are getting smarter," Jacqeline Leo uses symbol to represent the house and car to children she is making a introduction to the argument she will be making later on in her analysis.

2. Counterexample, "The problem is, the smarter our houses become, the more incompetent we become -- with impunity." This two examples the author gives contradict themselves, and she changes her tone of voice as if she was feeling defensive.

3.Description, "Let's start with the car. It not only signals when you forget to secure your seat belt, it beeps when you get a little close to another object." Leo describes what the cars can do now-a-days to show to the audience that pretty much cars are getting smarter and smarter as years go by.

4.Sarcasm, " The only decision we'll have to make -- should we sit in the front seat and pretend we're driving or in the back seat and pretend we have a chauffeur?" Leo uses sarcasm through out her paper she also throws in a little of humor to make her paper a little fun and appealing.

5.Parody, "Typing? Every new device "fixes" typos automatically, and you don't need to know grammar or spelling with spell check." she is correct when she says that new. Devices can do spelling checks, but she exaggerates a little bit when she says that we do not need to know spell checks.