My visual argument circumferences an issue I notice in my daily life: texting while driving. Since the age of the smartphone, drivers have been plagued by the immense distraction caused by their cell phones. Being able to text, call, Snapchat, check your Facebook feed, and FaceTime with the touch of a button on a smartphone creates an overwhelming diversion of the driver’s attention from the road. Considering that driver are operating a motor vehicle that not only has the power to harm their passengers and themselves, but other innocent civilians on the road, this common mistake made ubiquitously by drivers needs to come to an end.
While it is apparent that using a phone while driving does not make for the most attentive driver, there is a common misconception that many drivers, especially the younger generation, think there is an of evasion of potential harm because of their high levels of intuition in being on their phones while driving. This is clearly not the case.
To persuade my audience, I took all of my photos on an iPhone to add an element of logos to my argument. After taking the photos and uploading them to Photoshop, I enhanced the photos using various elements in the program to add Pathos. I took four photos for my gallery. The first I took is of one of my roommates cars that had damage on the front fender. The second photo I took was of one of my roommates texting on her phone while driving. Although I did ask for her consent to use the photo, she was not aware of the project and was genuinely “multitasking” by using her phone while she was behind the wheel. The third photo I took involved a two-car accident I came across on McCart Avenue. In this accident, one of the drivers happened to be using their phone at the time of the collision. I approached the drivers and asked what had happened. One of the girls in the accident was a TCU student, she and told me that she was looking down to change the song on her Spotify before rear ending the car in front of her. Although it was extremely windy and the weather conditions were not favorable for driving, if all of her attention would have been on the road, she could have avoided rear ending the truck in front of her. The fourth photo I took involved an accident where a young man was injured and there is a cop in the photo. Although this does not involve a car accident or a cell phone, the juxtaposition of a man with blood all over his face and a police officer exhibits the downfalls of what could happen if a car accident were to take place. When in context with the other photos, this photo makes chronological sense when it comes to my visual argument.
In editing the photos, I decided that having a black, white and red color scheme would appeal most to the audience. All but the final photo are in black and white, white highlights of read. The text on the webpage is red to emphasize the importance of the project and to use the Logos and Ethos of the connotation of blood. The only photo that is not in black and white is the final photo, which has a low saturation and depicts the boy with the cop. I felt like leaving this photo with color would make the picture stand out even more than it already was. In this project, I wanted my photos to be raw, and grainy with a low quality aesthetic. I think that having the photos not taken on a professional camera and having them have lower resolutions adds to the message. Cell phones are pervasive in today’s society, and I think the way I utilized them in this project goes even further to prove that. In choosing the background photo being a close up of car damage, I wanted the audience to have to focus on the image and let it impact them in various ways. I wanted the webpage to appear noisy, to resemble the distraction that cell phones have on drivers. I did not want the webpage to be a comfortable place for the audience, as I wanted to push the message in an aggressive manner.
The way I displayed the photos on my webpage tell the negative story about texting and using a cell phone while driving. The first photo of a girl texting while driving, displaying the act of the visual argument. The second of minor car damage, which can serve as a warning of the dangers of using your phone while driving. The third, of a severe car wreck, which provides a more emotionally invasive warning against using the phone while behind the wheel. The fourth, which portrays the physical harm that being behind the wheel can cause in addition to getting tied up with the law.
In using the photos that depict severely damaged cars, I am appealing to the Pathos of the audience because seeing a car wreck is always jarring because other drivers immediately imagine yourself being in that situation. The photo of the car with minor car damage employs both values of Pathos and Logos because the emotional ties one has with damaging their car in addition to the logic of there being a damaged car on my webpage enhances the argument. The photo of my roommate texting behind the wheel adds Logos to my argument because it depicts the mindlessness that goes behind using your phone while driving. Most people are not thinking of the potential fatal harm they are causing by getting behind the wheel with a distraction in their hands. Finally, the fourth photo emits Ethos because since the police are involved and there is a depiction of an injured man, it brings up the ethicality of using your phone while behind the wheel.
To me, my visual argument hits close to home. Many of my friends, family, and myself included at times need to be reminded how life altering sending a text or just looking down at your phone for a brief moment can be while behind the wheel. Although it is tempting to just quickly check a text or a Snapchat, those few seconds spent keeping your eyes on the road and save not only your own life, but other lives on the road around you.
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