Sensei's Imagination: August 2024

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Discussing Online Arguments

We’ve seen an increasing number of online arguments in recent years. Twitter battles and Facebook comment wars have sparked new problems and concerns regarding people’s well-being. One of the issues is a lack of face-to-face accountability for what is being said. A person can hide behind a screen while spewing hateful and derogatory remarks to another human without feeling empathy. The argument that I have chosen for today's post is regards to evolution.

The debate or conversation can be found here.

In this discussion, I will not be putting my opinion on this topic, but instead a small analyzes of the debate/ conversation. And what I personally think would be a good way to approach the argument. I will also use OP for original poster.

Analysis and 5 rules that approach to Arguments

When examining an argument, first rule is to analyze the argument being made, and see the purpose of the initial comment. Debating whether or not the conversation is worth engaging in. The argument I chose is now over, but this was the initial comment. "If we evolved from chimps or monkeys or whatever, how are they resistant to AIDS, but us more evolved version isn’t?"

The second rule is to approach when examining an argument is seeing if people are using good arguments to inform their claim by giving good reasoning with support to the reasoning. A bad an example of this would be this example from someone trying to answer the OPs question. "Because HIV that causes AIDS only recently began infecting humans. It’s not clear how long the ancestor of HIV had been affecting monkeys and Chimps, but HIV isn’t even the same as those viruses since it jumped to humans. How exactly would have a defense against a virus that didn’t exist even 100 years ago?" This is a bad example, because they give an opinion with backing themselves up using resources.

The third rule is to see if the person is being serious about the actual conversation by their interaction with feedback of others. The OP in this situation may be trolling the person replying to their comment. Here is an example of this, "Oh, so maybe we had immunity before and lost it? We figured that maybe it isn’t that bad anymore, so we just decided to stop defending against it?" It's hard to tell if the OP is being honest with this response, and makes it challenge whether or not someone should engage, another individual claims that the OP is just messing with commentor of this post, but it is not clear until reading further comments from the OP and other commenters. The OP and the first commentor do go back and forth and do a great job at communicating effectively.

The fourth rule is to keep calm and if you have something to say, make sure you have the evidence to back your information when you do decide to say something. That way the conversation is seen valid and with appropriate proof.

The final rule is to know when to end the argument or debate. Sometimes it's not worth putting in the effort to a conversation that isn't going anywhere.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Discussing the Toulmin Method

The Toulmin method isn't really seen too much online from what I see firsthand. In the age of online communication, however, I can see this method being a driving force in arguments and debates. It can also be a way to analyze posts, and information spread out all across the internet and various forms of media. The Components of the Toulmin method supplies a great approach when it comes down to it. As figure 1 shows, we should use this method to better understand what is presently being stated and identifying the claim being made.

Figure 1

The Components of the Toulmin Method

The methods of the Toulmin method are identified using 6 main components when analyzing a claim being made. Here are the components at hand, what they do.

Claim- The claim is the argument or fact that is trying to be made.

Grounds- The grounds are what supports the claim.

Warrant- The warrant is the information that is expressed explicitly, or information that is implied.

Backing- The backing is referred to as any of the extra help the warrant needs, in order to make the claim more accurate, or supported.

Qualifier- The qualifier is used to as the possible circumstance that the claim is not true or has an exception.

Rebuttal- Rebuttal is used as a way to show that you know that there is validity in another point of view in the argument, or fact being claimed.

Understanding the components of the Toulmin method is quite vital in regards to any claim that is being made. Whether it is factual or not, it allows us to look at an argument and understand all the pieces of that said argument.

Example of the Toulmin method can be seen in many online situations, and be used to identify a situation. In figure 2.

Figure 2

Although this method may be a good way to identify claims and analyzing them. There is potential that this method may have some limitations.

When we look at conversation and arguments being made. We can sometimes see an overload of information making it quite difficult to sort it, and the influence of emotions behind the information can make it difficult to see the argument for what it is. Examining these challenges and limitations, we must examine the argument at hand and view what the individual is claiming. Looking beyond certain opinions that motivated by feelings may be a challenge, but determining what is being presented is important and should be analyzed thoughtfully. People are entitled to feel a certain way when making an argument, but it is our jobs when seeing the arguments being portrayed to be mindful of the information and to understand what is warranted as well as backed.

This will lead to more mindful conversation and understanding different viewpoints. This also applies to how we see an over-load in information that is being presented. Sometimes, it is good to break things down into small pieces when analyzing the claim. This engages our critical thinking skills and allows online social communication to flourish.

Additional Videos

Toulmin Method (youtube.com)

The Toulmin Model of Argumentation: Claims, Data, and Warrants, Oh My! - Logic Series | Academy ... (youtube.com)

Bibliography

Toulmin Argument - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

Friday, August 2, 2024

Online Communication and its influence on Society.

Influence of Online Communication on Society

Social media has become a strong and powerful force all individuals allowing them to have their voices shared with all who are willing to listen. It also a battleground where people interact with one another, and debate about all topics, whether they are controversial, political, or just opinions on how things should be done. Lets dig into how social media is used as a function for public opinions and how government, businesses, and individuals use it to spread information to influence the public.

Oversight of Influence

There are numerous key factors contributing to public opinions and how they are affected. Firstly, looking at the amount of people on social media, and how many forms of social media platforms out there allows us to see that our whole world is connected one way or another. Individuals, businesses, and even the government uses social media as an outlet to spread information to the public since there is so many people online today.

When we analyze the way individuals from the government or government agencies interact with social media platforms, it can be viewed in many ways. Social media is a good way for many of these individuals and agencies to connect with the people, and create a rapport with the community or communities they are trying to reach. It is also a way for people to get to know what their government is doing and how they react to different things on platforms. Whether these interactions are with political cartoons, social movements, or giving an opinion about a topic. All of these are ways that can be good, bad, or even controversial to the general public. When we look at today's most common threads of the use of social media and the way people use online communication can be seen in this year's election. I have seen tons of ads, and videos for the individuals running for presidency. It can be seen good, bad, or however someone wants to process what they observed. It seems to be a good way that we see online communication be used in more strategical ways.

Online Communication secondly, when it comes to social media helps communities spread awareness of social events going on in the area such as school fundraisers, city council meetings, and even sport events in the area that some probably wouldn't even know about living there day to day lives. When viewing the way social media works its way into interpersonal relationships with our communities is amazing, because we can see all the positive influence and interactions between all members of our community. There are some down sides to it when it comes down to all things, but it has opened a way for people to not feel so isolate or alone within their own communities.

Lastly, if we thoroughly think about how we use social media and how successful it is when it comes releasing information, we can guarantee that someone will see it. The benefits of this varies greatly, but at what cost? This form of communication is so open that anyone can touch it or manipulate to what they want it to appear like. So, when we look at the information presented to us if it is some form of propaganda, we should take in consideration of how accurate it is. Even if it's someone's opinion, opinions are shared openly and should be thought about before completely accepting it as truth.

when we approach arguments, and debates online. All information and people participating need to go in with open minds and understand that what they're reading isn't going to be completely accurate. There should always be some form of mediation between yourself and how you choose to interact with those online. I like to think to myself, will this benefit me in anyway? How does this topic make me feel? Will arguing with random people online make me feel better? How does this effect other people use social media, is this information harmful? I think individuals and organizations should think similarly, because the general public has much more than people realize.