Peril Promise Summary

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4/5/12 Peril, Promise, Both, or Neither? Author Collin Hansen, editorial director for The Gospel Coalition and former associate editor for Christianity Today magazine, is known for writing about the younger person’s perspective on being Reformed. His article “The Perils and Promise of Social Media,” which appeared in Tabletalk magazine June 2011, continues with the same focus as he presses young educated Christians especially to think critically and take action on the controversial topic of the use of social media. In his article, Hansen sets a tone of caution while still clearly raising his several concerns about the dangers of social media. He even sprinkles some dry humor throughout the article if you are willing to look for it. Hansen achieves his purpose of instigating public thought by a mixed use of different subjects and by appealing to logic and credibility along with a less obvious appeal to emotion. In the introductory sentence, Hansen seemingly constructs a dilemma using the language of “caught between…show more content…
The penultimate sentence in this paragraph speaks of “Influencers disconnected from the seasoned wisdom of friends and mentors” (emphasis added). This wordplay relating the “connectedness” of social media to the reality of disconnection from people not only tickles the funny bone of literarily minded readers, but also adds to his logical case against the overuse of social media. Hansen also appeals to the credibility of others by referencing books and authors. This helps us see his intended audience more clearly as he does this. First he references a quote about the middle class from Alexis de Tocqueville “in his famous book Democracy in America” (emphasis added). This is a not uncommonly required text for political science classes. This clearly points to a major portion of his intended audience as being

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