Rhetoric Response 1

KAIROS

This term has been played with constantly in different forms. In writings of love the importance of Kairos is detrimental to the outcome. In Sports, the ‘play’ depends on whether the ball is thrown and the catcher is available at the right time. In digital media, Kairos is left open for interpretation by the viewer.

Because the internet is so vast, something is constantly being seen or discovered. People are discovering new videos on Youtube every day. When I first came to college I was shown a video by someone who had just found it, and a year later someone else had recently discovered it and showed it to me again. Something as simple as a Youtube video can circulate and be found by anyone in the world within a matter of minutes, or years depending on the circumstances. These circumstances being: whether or not there is access to a computers or TVs, having friends who own computers or TVs.

I believe digital media has not canceled out Kairos, but prolonged it as a process. There are now two types of Kairos: Present Kairos and Past Kairos. An example: living in the late eighteen hundreds and attending a speech. This is present Kairos. In this situation, Kairos is very limited to this one time. No one outside of this occasion would know about the events of this speech. If the listener is not present, he/she misses the Kairos all-together. However, in present day terms, if someone were to attend a speech, this listener would be able to experience the speech, but because this speech is most likely being recorded and/or being reported on, the audience- or the people affected by this speech- is not only limited to the people in the room, but anyone and everyone connected to the internet.

http://www.ted.com/ is a great website for intellectual, academic, artistic and motivational speeches. This website is an exact example of Past Kairos. If the internet/digital media did not exist, these speeches given would never be seen by anyone else than those in that very room at that very time.

The internet has created Past Kairos. This way, no one is limited by time. Anyone can see any post in any website at any given time. A post made in the early 2000’s can still be seen by us in the present day, depending on the situation and opportunities that arise and fall in to place. There is more of a sense of inclusion in the world that the internet has opened; such as the events in the news, in ground breaking academic studies, and nonsensical entertainment internet videos and posts. These events happen all around the world at any given time, but because of digital media, the opportunities to view or be affected by these events does not conclude when the event ends. 

SYNECDOCHE

The general definition of Synecdoche is the use of referring to a part of something as a whole or vice versa. But to me, this definition is too surface. What does the use of this term actually mean, not just do?

In the internet, this kind of grouping happens regularly. From something as simple as a website page with different tabs; click on these tabs and you are given a variety of options to choose from that have been grouped under ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Membership’ or ‘Student.’ http://www.aiia.org/ is an example of this use of grouping. That particular website has grouped every possible link pertaining to the tab’s subject, into one list under the tab. Another example is with the categorizing of films. Romantic Comedies, Dramas, Horror, Thriller- these are all groupings of films being referred to as an entire genre.

I think there has also been a synecdoche of the people on the internet. Once people join the internet they are placed into that grouping and are thrown into the online world and thrown to the mercy of the internet and those that use it. There is a certain level of anonymity that is available through the internet, but because of this anonymity there have been a synecdoche of identity. Many faceless people are grouped into these categories and referred to as a whole, such as Anonymous- an internet group. http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/the-different-types-of-people-there-are-on-the-internet/ This informal article is an example of that categorizing of people. I believe the internet has helped the connection of people across the world, but it has also hindered because people are suddenly able to hide their identity, throw caution to the wind and in some cases, lose sense of their humanity. I have been roaming through the internet and on several occasions come across a few disturbing posts made by faceless users. This idea of grouping people occurs every day in non-digital media settings as well, when someone sees another individual and places them into a category such as jock, nerd, meat head, weirdo, goth, and so on. Synecdoche creates the opportunity to simplify otherwise tedious actions such as a grouping on a website page, or in a film industry. But other than the categorizing of items, I believe synecdoche can be harmful to society. It becomes dangerous when this idea of synecdoche starts being used on people, especially in an internet setting where identity is already in question.