Exemplary Analysis Essay II: The Uses and Users of Facebook

Sorapon "Gorn" Witchurungsee of Thailand

This post features a second exemplary analysis essay written by a student in the Advanced Writing class of the Loyola Intensive English Program. Sorapon Witchurungsee of Thailand, known to his friends as Gorn, has chosen to analyze the various uses and users of Facebook.

Gorn is a lawyer in Thailand. He is preparing to enter the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas this fall to begin his studies for the LL.M. degree. After completing his studies in the United States, Gorn plans to return to Thailand and to work there in the legal field.

Below is Gorn's essay.

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Facebook Friends

By Sorapon Witchurungsee

Using Facebook surprises me because some of my friends behave differently on Facebook from in person.  For example, one of my friends talks too much on Facebook—considering how often she posts a day—but in person she seldom talks with others at all.

From my experience with Facebook, I categorize my friends into 5 categories.

1. People who like showing off
2. People who analyze situations and share information
3. People who love describing their emotion
4. People who do business
5. People who want to keep contact with their friends

People who like showing off

I am not sure why people share their pictures on Facebook; I do not even know why I share my own pictures.  However, I assume that one reason is to show scenes of their lives with their family so that their parents can know how well they are doing.

People in this group always love taking photos—of themselves, their friends, tourist attractions, or whatever they think may become the best shots.  As soon as they have gotten the beautiful shots, they will upload them on Facebook—if they take photos with a camera rather than a cell phone, they will upload them later.

The consequence of showing pictures on Facebook is that friends will make comments and/or give a like on pictures. Showing photos is one of the best ways to keep in touch with friends because some pictures can be a good discussion topic, such as old high school pictures, or new pictures of an old hang-out.

People who analyze situations and share information

Some of my friends on Facebook belong to this category. They always analyze political or social issues and share the analyses on Facebook. Some are experts, such as the law school professors who illustrate issues and/or give opinions to their students and other people.  Some are amateurs who love to show their visions of problems.  Besides giving their own analyses, they like sharing the analyses of others whom they agree with. 

Sharing specific points of view may cause conflict with Facebook friends who hold opposing views.  However, people in this category also like to share helpful information, mottos, or encouraging statements to motivate their friends on Facebook.  In addition, they strive to make the world a better place by sharing pictures or statements for helping poor people.  For example, my friend Aoe shared a request for anyone with the rare AB-type blood to help someone in need, her own professor.  No matter what the result is, sharing this kind of information can make the world more beautiful. 

People who love describing their emotion

In the past few years, expressing emotions was limited to a few people: friends, parents, sisters, brothers, or anyone immediately involved.  However, now with technology like Facebook, people can express their emotion to a larger group than they did in the past.

Happiness, sadness, frustration, and excitement are examples of emotions people express through Facebook every single day.  It is good to share a happy moment or release an annoyance via Facebook because friends are supposed to stay together in every single moment whether happy or sad.  People can get encouragement and various solutions via Facebook whenever they face a problem.

However, even though you can make people happy by sharing a positive moment, or can find true friends standing up for you when you face a negative moment, the most important thing that you must be aware of is that sharing emotion too often makes you a complainer.

People who do business 

Marketing, increasing consumption to gain a massive amount of profit, is the key of success in business.  The more people know your products, the more successful you are; therefore, advertisement is crucial.

Technology changes people’s behaviors, that is, people play more on Facebook and spend less time on watching television and listening to the radio.  Therefore, my friends interested in setting up business choose Facebook to advertise their products for two main reasons: free and easy.  Not only my friends who begin to do business, but also the huge companies in the world—such as Apple, Microsoft, Toyota—use Facebook as one of their advertising strategies.

These users do their business by posting their commodities on their Facebook status.  Then, the advertisement will show on their friends’ feed.  Besides, sometimes they tag the picture of the advertisement to their friends so that the picture can appear on the feed of their friends’ friends.  Another way to advertise on Facebook is to create a Facebook page devoted to the product and convince people to be a member by giving a like.  This measure, in my opinion, is more polite than tagging an advertisement to other users because this measure depends on the willingness of the users, whether they want to give a like or not.

The people in this category sometimes irritate other users who are not interested in buying a commodity and want to use Facebook for other purposes.  Therefore, users in this classification should use Facebook with discretion, balancing between running their business and respecting other users.

People who want to keep contact with their friends

This group of my friends rarely has any movement in their Facebook, such as posting messages, sharing pictures and/or information, giving a comment or a like.  Most actions on their Facebook happen with specific purposes: keeping contact with their friends and tracing what is going on with their friends, such as who is about to get married, what their friends’ new jobs are, and when the reunion party will be.

For example, I belonged to this category of Facebook users when I became a monk for two weeks in November, 2012. (In Buddhist tradition, young men should be a monk to show their gratefulness toward their parents.)  Before entering the monastery, I used Facebook to announce my event to my friends as well as to ask them to forgive my former bad actions, for Buddhists believe that before becoming a monk, one should receive forgiveness from whomever one has wronged, whether through action, speech, or thought.  Many of my friends—both close and not close—got this news through Facebook.  They also congratulated and forgave me through this channel.  Without Facebook, it would have been hard to contact many of my friends under the limited time.

Posting messages, sharing pictures and/or information, or giving a comment or a like not only can keep friends in touch with each other but also can bring friends closer.  The reason is those kinds of actions can cause long intimate conversations between friends.

Conclusion

Even if these categories are distinct, a person can belong to more than one category.  From time to time, people can change from one category to another category.  Moreover, a new category may emerge.  Whatever category you belong to, using Facebook has both upsides and downsides; therefore, people should use Facebook with courtesy.

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Thank you, Gorn Witchurungsee, for this excellent analysis of Facebook uses and users!

Our next post will take you with us on our most recent LIEP field trip to the Louisiana Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, Louisiana!

Exemplary Analysis Essay I: Apple's Advertising Strategies for the iPhone 5

In our previous post, we showed you how the Advanced Writing class of the Loyola Intensive English Program began our summer session by creating advertisements of their own in preparation for writing an essay analyzing an actual online, television, or magazine advertisement. In this post and in our next one, we would like to share with you two exemplary essays written by students in the class. We begin here with the essay of Felix Garmendia of Venezuela, who chose to analyze the advertising strategies used by Apple in a video promoting the iPhone 5.

Felix Garmendia of Venezuela

Felix Garmendia is a corporate lawyer in Venezuela and is preparing to enter the College of Law of Loyola University New Orleans for his LL.M. degree. In addition, Felix is an accomplished artist. His artwork is on display at Garmendia Art Gallery in New Orleans. Felix's series of white horse paintings and flower paintings are especially remarkable.

Below is Felix Garmendia's essay. You may want to view the iPhone 5 advertising video itself in conjunction with reading Felix's essay.

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ADVERTISING STRATEGY FOR THE IPHONE 5

By Felix Garmendia

Selling a product can be hard if the right TV commercial strategy is not used.  It will be possible to see an example of how a successful company like Apple uses advertising strategies to promote one of their cell phones known as the iPhone 5.

In the last TV commercial made by Apple, some of the executive directors of the different departments describe the quality improvements they made to the iPhone 5. In the commercial they talk about the iPhone 5 while they show different scenes related to the subject that they are talking about.

APPEAL TO THE HUMAN QUEST FOR AN EASY LIFE

The useful applications of the iPhone 5 is one of the most competitive characteristics of this new model of cell-phone. In the TV commercial, the executive talks about how useful the iPhone 5 applications are and how they were designed to provide solutions to daily life problems. Currently, people live in a very busy world. Everyone has to do many things at the same time. Teenagers have to attend school to do their homework and sometimes to practice sports or social activities. They need to socialize with many groups of people. On the other hand, the adults also have to do several activities: to work, to study in the university, to exercise, to pay bills, to take care of the children´s education, and to spend time with the family and friends. Each age group has a busy life and many different activities. They have something in common; they feel the necessity to be connected socially.

With this strategy, Apple offers to make people´s life easier using the iPhone 5 applications.

Fast Access to the Internet. In the first scene the Senior Vice President of Apple talks about the functionality of this new model of iPhone. He talks about the fast Internet access, while a person opens several web pages at the same time using an iPhone 5. In the modern world people have many available options to make daily life easier using the Internet. It is possible to pay the utilities of the house or the business, to pay the tuition of the children´s college or the university, to buy something that we need, to check the emails, or to read the news while we are waiting in the doctor´s room or in the subway. With this strategy, Apple wants to gain customers of different ages and occupations.

Useful Applications. In this scene the Software Senior Vice President talks about the characteristics of some applications designed for the cell phone.

• High resolution camera. In the TV commercial while the Senior Vice President is talking, a man is taking a picture of some friends playing basketball. Then, he posts it in Facebook, which is one of the most visited websites around the world. Every day we see an increase in the use of cell phone cameras. The tech companies are becoming more competitive to provide more attractive options to their cell phone cameras. The cell phone companies are designing great functional cameras with high resolution. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram have become an important part of the life of a large number of people around the world. In the TV commercial, the people who use these applications every day find that the iPhone 5 is the best cell phone option.

• Video chat using the iPhone 5. In the TV commercial, there is a scene where a mom, with her newborn, is having a video chat with the husband who is working out of town. In many countries, especially in the United States, it is common to see people in long distance relationship who have to live apart from their family for several reasons. For instance, some people have to work for long periods of time in a different city. The young people usually go to study in other cities when they leave the high school. In the same way, the business people or the universities use this function to have video chats with their clients or students. Today we see how technology is a great way to reduce the distance among people who live far away. This TV commercial effectively shows how useful this application is in daily life.

• Music display functions. In this scene a man is running in a beautiful park while he is listening to music. The iPhone 5 media player is shown during the commercial. In the past, there was a series of portable music displayers designed by different companies including Apple. Many people live stressful lives and they relax by listening to music. With the scene of this TV commercial, people can imagine listening to their favorite songs anywhere using the iPhone 5.

• GPS. In this scene, a girl is driving and she is following her GPS to find an address. The GPS is very helpful for some people and has become indispensable for others. People use this application to go wherever they want. With this strategy, the executive will gain more customers interested in buying the iPhone 5.

CONNECTION WITH EMOTIONS

One important way to get people interested in a product is to connect with them emotionally. The TV commercial tries to connect the human emotions in different ways.

Customs. At the beginning of the TV commercial, the Senior Vice President tries to connect with all the people who are using the old version of the iPhone named iPhone 4. He explains that the iPhone 5 is better than the older versions, but the design and applications are similar. With this strategy, he is trying to convince the people that Apple has improved the product. The iPhone 4 has been very successful. Millions of people have been using the iPhone 4. All of these people feel comfortable using the iPhone 4, and it is a challenge to the iPhone´s executives to improve their cell phone without changing too much their main applications and design. This strategy is directed to the customers who are using the old version of iPhone. If they see the TV commercial, they will think that this new version of iPhone is better than the version they have, and they can change one for the other easily without suffering a dramatic process of adaptation between one version and the other. They maintain the fidelity to the product.

Family Affection. In the scene of the TV commercial with the mother and her newborn, the executives are trying to connect with human emotions. People imagine reducing the distance among family members who live far away, or in some cases the children live in a different house apart from their mother or father. So, the emotional support is very important for the humans. In this TV commercial Apple tries to touch the sensibility of the customers. People who are experiencing a similar situation will be identified with the iPhone 5.

Friendship / Sharing. The scene where a man takes a picture of his friends playing basketball and then uploads to Facebook is a clear representation of how the cell phone can be used to share information instantly. In our globalized world the social media has become an important way to keep the relationships active. Nowadays, it is common to know people who have traveled around the world, and they usually have many friends from different countries. However, they maintain contact in real time using the iPhone 5. In the TV commercial this strategy works very well because it is aimed to many people of different ages, and nationalities who consider friendship something important to their life.

OFFER OF A RELIABLE CELL PHONE

The use of some experts to explain the quality of the product is another strategy used by Apple to offer credibility to the product.

Experts. The main stars of the TV commercial are Apple's high executives. During the different scenes, the executives explain the main features of the iPhone 5. Each executive is an expert in the area he is talking about. For instance, the Design Senior Vice President, Jony Ive, provides details about the design improvements of the iPhone 5. Then, the Senior Vice President, Bob Mansfield, talks about all the new functions that the iPhone 5 provides. Finally, the Software Senior Vice President, Scott Forstall, explains details of each application of the iPhone 5. This strategy is very effective because it provides details and information of what the cell phone can do. In the same way the TV commercial offers credibility to the product when the people can hear these characteristics of the cell phone directly from its designers.

The creation process. This is another important point in the TV commercial. Apple shows some parts of the making process of the cell phone. With this strategy Apple provides technical information about the different pieces and materials of the iPhone 5.  People can see that the product is made with high technology machines and high quality materials. This offers reliability in buying a quality cell phone.

The TV commercial for the iPhone 5 is a successful example of how advertising strategies work. Each detail is taken into account to communicate the right message to customers in the most effective way. The TV commercial shows several characteristics of the iPhone 5, with Apple´s executives focusing on people´s needs. Apple offers multifunctional, high quality cell phones that provide solutions to daily life problems. It is likely that many people who watch this TV commercial will want to buy the iPhone 5.

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Thank you, Felix Garmendia, for sharing your excellent analysis of advertising strategies with us!

Our next post will feature the essay of Sorapon Witchurungsee of Thailand, known to his friends as Gorn. Gorn chose to analyze the various uses and users of Facebook.