In the article “To Meme or Not to Meme”, the author, Maya Walker, demonstrates the relationship between mental health issues and social media, as she shares her own experiences, and later provides knowledge and research about this issue. Walker argues that joking about mental health issues on the internet will worsen the overall health and well-being of our generation and this trend needs to stop. She effectively presents this argument and uses successful tactics of persuasion, including her evidence, credibility, emotional appeal, and organization to convince her audience.
The author presents the argument that memes about mental health issues are dangerous and will be destructive to our generation’s mental health. We learn this thesis at the end of the first paragraph after she describes her own experience with the issue. The audience includes “Gen Z”, people who use the internet, people who struggle with mental health, and adolescents. Walker wants the audience to realize how dangerous the internet can be especially when adolescents can be so vulnerable online. The author supports her argument by following all her claims with expert evidence, including a university, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and a clinical therapist. This really strengthens her argument by backing it up with a reliable source. Possibly her strongest technique, Walker draws emotion by sharing that she thought about suicide and addresses how serious the topic is for her. Finally, the relevance of the issue is one of the most effective convincing strategies because before the reader even reads the essay, they already use social media every day and may experience the risks she talks about. The important thing to take away from this is that Maya Walker effectively presents and supports her claim in “To Meme or Not to Meme” and convinces the reader to believe her thesis.
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