Paul Saffo's Rhetorical Analysis Of Google Glass

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The fact that new technological innovations are being created on a daily basis is not a surprising bit of information. And, for most of us, neither is the “anxiety about ubiquitous surveillance” (Hunt) that accompanies it. One of the newest wonders in technology is the Google Glass—an interesting accessory that allows its wearer to check social media websites or even snap a quick photograph of his or her surroundings with a mere wink. In an opinion piece written for CNN, writer Paul Saffo combines common logic, a connection with his audience, and his reputable background to claim that technological advancement is unavoidable and while there are several positive aspects of such growth, a major loss of privacy is sure to follow. Saffo’s logos…show more content…
The audience of the piece consists of individuals who are anticipating the release of Google Glass, as it is these individuals who are formally addressed in the piece when Saffo begins by stating “Google Glass is crazy fun, but don't worry if you missed your chance to buy a pair on Tuesday” (Saffo). Evidently, the audience is made up of people who know about Google Glass to an extent and are interested in buying a pair of their own. “Crazy” shows how the author is attempting to connect with his audience. The main body of the article spends time building up the product—outweighing the pros and cons to show that the invention will eventually become something worth buying once it becomes more beneficial. The technological fanatics within the audience are appealed to when Saffo mentions how deeply certain individuals cherish their devices and how they will one day disappear, being replaced by something completely different. When Saffo goes into detail regarding how else the Google Glass could be used, for example, to allow parents to “discretely listen in on the baby monitor back home or view streaming video off a bedroom webcam” (Saffo). This slowly begins to build a feeling of uncertainty, up until asking the last questions whose answers truly resonate within the audience’s minds: “And privacy? Forget about it. We are destined to become like…show more content…
This ethos allows the audience to trust the text’s reliability and trust that technological advancement truly is inevitable, with believable pros and cons. Throughout the text he builds a persona of himself as a friend of the audience—even a part of the audience himself, as evidenced through “we” and “our” constantly available through the text. Saffo has his own website, in which he is accredited as a professor in forecasting the change of technology over long periods of time along with having written dozens of essays regarding the subject of technology in a number of distinguished publications outside of CNN, such as The Harvard Business Review. With all of these accomplishments under his belt, Saffo is clearly a reliable source on the topic of what sort of cutting-edge technology Google Glass is predicting and how it will affect our nearly nonexistent privacy. By not mentioning his previous works, however, Saffo confirms that he is a source that the audience can trust rather than be solely lectured to. Thus, the author’s strong ethos is helpful in reiterating the claim that technological advancement in unavoidable and while it has several positive aspects, there is a major loss of privacy that comes with

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