HI! This is my own first draft essay.

Please highlight the changes you think I should make and explain why I should make this change.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1Ekb3799jT9LIi_9LzMGkXMBMyBcD146a/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

1:47PM Tue Jul 9 D)) 97% (umm) Hailey Daughtry Emily Ricklefs ENG1021X44 English Composition I: CO1 24 Jun. 2024 On the evening of February 17, 2018, Professor Mary Beard, a distinguished classicist from the University of Cambridge, posted a photo of herself in tears on Twitter. Beard, who boasts nearly 200,000 followers, was visibly upset due to the flood of online abuse she encountered after commenting on Haiti. Her tweet, which expressed vulnerability and admitted the possibility of being wrong, ignited a wider discussion about the nature of online harassment and the influence of social media on public discourse. Beard's ordeal is a stark illustration of how digital platforms, intended for connection and communication, can instead become breeding grounds for hostility and aggression, particularly targeting women and minorities. The rhetorical situation surrounding Beard's tweet is intricate, involving the speaker, the audience, and the exigence. Beard, a respected academic, is a speaker whose credibility is bolstered by her scholarly achievements. Her audience includes her Twitter followers and the broader public that engages with her content. The exigence, or the pressing situation prompting her rhetoric, is the intense backlash she received for her comment about Haiti. Beard's emotional reaction, depicted in her photograph, serves as a powerful piece of visual rhetoric, amplifying the impact of her words. Her statement, \"I speak from the heart (and of course | may be wrong). But the crap | get in response just isn't on; really it isn't,\" appeals to pathos, invoking empathy and highlighting the unjust and excessive nature of the abuse she faced. In the days following her tweet, Beard received support from notable figures, including Greg Jenner, who shared his own traumatic experience of enduring a Twitterstorm. This support network underscores the community ethos among public figures experiencing similar online harassment. However, this solidarity also provoked further abuse towards Beard's supporters, revealing the cyclical and pervasive nature of online hostility. The situation escalated when Privamvada Gopal, another Cambridge academic, critiqued Beard's initial comment and subsequently faced her own wave of abuse. Gopal's experience highlights the intersectionality 1:47PM Tue Jul 9 97% (umm) D)) of online harassment, with women of ethnic minority backgrounds, such as Gopal and black female MP Diane Abbott, facing particularly severe bullying. The evidence of targeted abuse towards women and minorities on Twitter is overwhelming. This pattern reflects broader societal biases and the amplification of these biases through the anonymity and reach of social media platforms. The relentless barrage of threats, including death threats and sexual violence, has a silencing effect, pushing individuals off these platforms and diminishing the diversity of voices and opinions online. This trend is alarming, as it undermines the democratic potential of the Internet to facilitate inclusive dialogue and the exchange of ideas. The business models of social media platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook, exacerbate this issue by promoting content that elicits strong reactions, thereby driving engagement and advertising revenue. This algorithmic bias towards divisive and extreme content nurtures online echo chambers, reinforcing polarized opinions and the spread of misinformation. Research has demonstrated how various vested interests, including foreign operatives, exploit these dynamics to manipulate public opinion and sow discord. The internet, once heralded for its potential to connect humanity and foster collaboration, appears to be regressing into tribalism and conflict. This shift challenges the initial optimism about the internet's role in building a more cooperative and connected world. Unlike our real-life interactions, which are generally governed by social norms and polite behavior, online interactions often devolve into hostility and abuse. This disparity raises critical questions about how we can relearn the collaborative techniques that historically enabled human societies to thrive. Experiments conducted at Yale University's Human Cooperation Lab offer insights into the mechanisms of cooperation and the conditions under which it flourishes. These experiments, such as the public goods game, demonstrate that humans have an inherent impulse to be cooperative and generous, but this behavior is contingent on trust and the perceived reliability of social institutions. Rapid decision-making tends to favor generosity, while deliberative decision-making can lead to more selfish outcomes. This suggests that cooperation is a fundamental feature of human evolution, with individuals benefiting from group cooperation and maintaining reputations for cooperative behavior. 1:47PM Tue Jul 9 D)) 97% (umm) However, the learned behaviors of cooperation can quickly change in response to environmental cues. In experiments where participants were trained to be selfish, their subsequent charitable behavior decreased significantly. Conversely, training participants to cooperate increased their generosity even when no external incentives were present. These findings highlight the malleability of human behavior and the potential for creating more cooperative online environments through intentional design and interventions. The design of social media platforms and the nature of online interactions contribute to the prevalence of antisocial behavior. Unlike face-to-face interactions, where social norms and potential reputational damage constrain behavior, online interactions often lack these checks, leading to a higher incidence of aggression and hostility. Researchers like Molly Crockett at Yale's Psychology Lab have studied how social emotions, such as moral outrage, are amplified online. The brain's reward center is activated when people express outrage, reinforcing this behavior and encouraging its repetition. Social media platforms, designed to maximize engagement, disproportionately promote content that triggers outrage, creating a feedback loop that amplifies divisive and extreme content. Despite the challenges, there are opportunities to harness the positive aspects of online engagement while mitigating its negative effects. For instance, marginalized groups have successfully used social media to draw attention to critical issues and effect change. The redesign of social media interactions to promote cooperative behavior, coupled with interventions to reduce antisocial behavior, could foster more inclusive and constructive online communities. Mary Beard's experience and the broader phenomenon of online abuse underscore the urgent need to address the toxic dynamics of social media. The rhetorical power of Beard''s tearful photograph and her heartfelt plea against online abuse resonate deeply, highlighting the personal and societal costs of unchecked hostility on digital platforms. Through a combination of behavioral science, platform design, and societal effort, we can strive to reclaim the internet's potential as a tool for positive communication and collaboration, ensuring that it serves as a space where diverse voices can be heard and respected. 1:48 PM Tue Jul 9 . . 97% 4 Beard, Mary. "The Impact of Online Harassment on Public Discourse." Journal of Social Media Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2018, pp. 45-68. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1234567890