The Importance of Ethos and Pathos!

      Can we trust the things we read online? Are we tuned in to our own emotional responses online? I, like most people, have a desire to be right in all things. We live in a world where people argue on Social Media all the time, about who is right. Each one of them always assumed that the other one is wrong. If someone is truly right, then one can assume that someone has to be wrong as well. We also have a desire to be happy and refrain from negative emotions. There is this desire for a happy ending in American culture, that affects everything we consume, This is what Dan Lawrence is writing about when he writes about Logos and pathos. Logos refers to a person's desire for logic, and pathos to a person's emotion

 In today’s digital world, facts are rarely straight forward and data is often skewed. Every piece of data has a context that needs to be analyzed. Dan Lawrence writes, “ Data can be wielded like a weapon to prove a point” (Lawrence, 2022). Those who read online must consider the context of each of the facts that they read. Those who write online must consider the importance of the context and relay that to their audience. These are things that writers must pay attention to. Not only because facts are easy to skew, but also because each person has built-in ideas in their mind, and some of these ideas they do not even know about.

Media, advertisers, and writers like to use our emotions to make us feel, to convince us, or to sell us something. This is a very effective tactic. Many of these pleas to our emotions are done through the drives that we have. It is not uncommon to see advertisements aimed at our hunger for food or our hunger for sex (Lawrence, 2022).  However, it is not impossible to remove all forms of emotional triggers from advertisement or writing. In fact, it is emotions that make people buy into things and enjoy things.

There are advantages and disadvantages to appealing to logic and emotions. Thousands were hospitalized with covid-related illnesses due to misinformation in just the first few months of 2020 alone. There have been many instances where misinformation has affected resume operations, such as the fake video of a Dam leak in Korala in 2018. There is also a growing trend of people being delayed in getting treatment because of misinformation spread online  (Muhammad & Matthew, 2022). There are also good things that can brought about by appealing to emotions and logic.  One study showed that tobacco use was cut by 80% in people who were exposed to warnings accompanied by pictures that produced emotional responses (Bogliacino et al.,2015).

We are persuaded by our desire to be right and our emotions. Companies and people continue to use these to capitalize on our minds and our hearts. There is no way around these techniques because many of them add value to our lives. However, it is important that each one of us consider these manipulations as we read, watch, or listen to content. It is just as important for the created to be vigilant in their activities to make sure that they aren’t spreading misinformation, nor using people's emotions for selfish gain.

References

Bogliacino F, Codagnone C, Veltri GA, Chakravarti A, Ortoleva P, Gaskell G, Ivchenko A, Lupiáñez-Villanueva F, Mureddu F, Rudisill C.( 2015) Pathos & Ethos: Emotions and Willingness to Pay for Tobacco Products. PLoS One. 10(10):e0139542. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139542. 

Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press

Muhammed T S, Mathew SK.(2022). The disaster of misinformation: a review of research in social media. Int J Data Sci Anal.13(4):271-285. doi: 10.1007/s41060-022-00311-6. Epub 2022 Feb 15.