Baroness Susan Greenfield begins her feature by asking a, to her, relevant question;” Can you imagine a world without long-term relationships […]?” This might seem as an exaggeration of the possible outcome, considering the topic in hand; children’s use of Facebook. It is however the rhetoric used throughout the feature from 2009, but don’t let it scare you from reading a different view on the common household item.
Susan Greenfield is a neuroscientist and underlines this fact tirelessly. It is unfortunately almost the only thing making her as an author look just a little reliable when reading “How Facebook addiction is damaging your child's brain: A leading neuroscientist's chilling warning”. The purpose of text is not just an innocent advice on limited online time for youngster – Greenfield is leading a proper inquisition against online social networking and online gaming. These two aspects combined forms a very strange use of rhetoric devices; first she builds up her ethos by beginning a sentence with “As a neuroscientist, I am aware of how […]”. Then Greenfield lowers her ethos by the extensive use of pathos; Calling Facebook a “threat”, exaggerating by predicting a future generation of autism and between the lines suggesting Facebook to be the reason behind more people getting ADHD. Without any other back-up than being a neuroscientist might represent, this assertion becomes somewhat ridiculous postulates. This whole feature becomes ridiculous, which is a shame – Greenfield´s feature contains an extremely important message; remember to sit down and take the time to talk to your loved ones. Facebook is ideal when it comes to arranging an event and keeping in touch, but you seldom have that candlelit, deep talk through the chat. Forming long-term relationships is a basic human need and should be a focus point in every human life .Yet the assumption that the online world eventually will undertake every