Speech Analysis: Screens, Happiness, and Audience Engagement

This assignment analyzes a speech that discusses the negative impacts of excessive screen time on happiness. The analysis examines how the speaker gains and maintains audience attention and interest, citing examples like the use of a rumor and visual aids. It assesses the speaker's credibility, identifying derived credibility and the use of personal experience to build common ground. The assignment then outlines the speech's main points: the link between screen time and reduced personal time, the lack of stopping cues on screens, and the suggestion to limit phone use. The analysis identifies the speech's organizational structure as topical order, justifying this classification. Furthermore, the assignment explores the speaker's use of language, highlighting accuracy, clarity, vividness, and appropriateness. Finally, the assignment identifies and evaluates the types of connectives used, including transitions, internal previews, and signposts, providing examples of their effective implementation within the speech.

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TOPIC: WHY OUR SCREENS MAKE US LESS HAPPY
1. How does the speaker gain the attention and interest of the audience? Give
examples.
At the beginning of the speech, the speaker gains the attention and interest of the
audience by relating the topic to the audience. The speaker started the speech with a
rumor as bait to arouse the audience’s interest and related the topic with the audience.
In the video (00:04), the speaker began with “A few years ago I heard an interesting
rumor. Apparently, the head of a large pet food company would go into the annual
shareholder’s meeting with can of dog food. And he would eat the can of dog food.”
By using vivid language to describe the rumors he heard years ago, the speaker
ensured the attention of the audience.
Furthermore, the speaker is arousing the curiosity of the audience. The speaker
arouses the audience’s curiosity about the topic by using fascinating statements. In
his speech (00:51), “Steve Jobs’ children have not used the iPad and limit how much
technology his children use at home.” and in the speech (01:31), “The Waldorf
School of the Peninsula did not introduce screens until the eighth grade, and 75% of
the children who went there have parents who are high-level Silicon Valley tech
execs.”, these two statements help to gradually raise the audience’s curiosity about
the topic of the speech by creating the suspense “why the technologists restrict their
children from using the screen”.
Moreover, the speaker gains the attention and interest of the audience by stating
the importance of the topic. Through the importance of the topic, the speaker tells his
audience why they should think the same way. In his speech (03:20), the speaker
talked about how much time people spent in their personal time in front of the screen,
which emphasized the importance of his topic and attracted the attention of the
audience. Besides, the speaker also uses visual aids to attract the audience’s attention
and interest. The video (03:28) shows the speaker using a horizontal bar chart to
compare the statistical trends of people’s personal time spent in front of the screen in
2007, 2015 and 2017.
The speaker also gains the attention and interest of the audience by questioning
the audience. By asking rhetorical questions, the speaker makes the audience think
about his speech. In the video (04:10), “What goes on during that time?”, “How

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enriching are the apps that we’re using?” and “Tell us how you feel right now”, each
question that the speaker asked can draw the audience deeper and deeper into the
speech.
2. Does the speaker establish his/her credibility? What type of credibility is
used? Explain.
Yes, the speaker establishes his credibility in the speech. The type of credibility
used in the speech is derived credibility, which the credibility of the speaker
produced from everything he says or does during the speech. The speaker increases
his credibility by explaining his competence and showing his academic
qualifications. The speaker emphasized his study and research in minute 02:01, “So
for the last five years, as a professor of business and psychology, I’ve been studying
the effect of screens on our lives. And I want to start by just focusing on how much
time they take from us, and then we can talk about what that time looks like. What
I’m showing you here is the average 24-hour workday at three different points in
history: 2007 -- 10 years ago -- 2015 and then data that I collected, actually, only
last week.”
Furthermore, the speaker builds common ground with the audience in his speech
to enhance his credibility during the speech. The speaker shared his experience with
the audience. In the speech (07:00), the speaker shared his experience and feelings of
not using his phone during dinner, “…I will never use my phone at the table.” “At
first, it hurts. I had massive FOMO. I struggled. But what happens is, you get used to
it. You overcome the withdrawal the same way you would from a drug, and what
happens is, life becomes more colorful, richer, more interesting -- you have better
conversations. You really connect with the people who are there with you.” Through
conveying the feelings he experienced, the speaker enables to create common ground
with the audience and make them more willing to accept his suggestions.
3. What are the main points of the speech? How are they supported? Elaborate
with examples.
In this speech, there are three main points. The first main point is the screens
make us less happy because the screens take up too much of our personal time. The
speaker supported the first point by presenting visual aids to sum up the data

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collection of his research. He presented the data in a bar graph. The data calculate an
average of a 24-hour workday in three different points of history which are 2007,
2015 and 2017. In the video (03:20), he also strengthened it by giving more data,
“Now, what I'm going to do is show you how much of that space is taken up by
screens across time. In 2007, this much. That was the year that Apple introduced the
first iPhone. Eight years later, this much. Now, this much. That's how much time we
spend of that free time in front of our screens. This yellow area, this thin sliver, is
where the magic happens. That's where your humanity lives. And right now, it's in a
very small box”. The data showed by the speaker concluded how much the screens
take-up of our precious time.
The second main point is the screens make us less happy because the screens
have no stopping cues. The speaker supported the point by giving an extended
example of the screens rob the stopping cues. In the speech (05:27), “There were
stopping cues everywhere. But the way we consume media today is such that there
are no stopping cues. The news feed just rolls on, and everything's bottomless:
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, text messaging, the news. And when you do
check all sorts of other sources, you can just keep going on and on and on”. It
summarizes the stopping cues rob by screens included the uncontrolled consuming
media.
The last main point is the screens make us less happy so we should stop using
phones. In the speech (07:00), “I think a far better strategy is to say, I do certain
things every day, there are certain occasions that happen every day, like eating
dinner. Sometimes I'll be alone, sometimes with other people, sometimes in a
restaurant, sometimes at home, but the rule that I've adopted is: I will never use my
phone at the table. It's far away, as far away as possible.”. At this point, the speaker
suggests putting the phone away and have stopping cues during dinner.
4. What type of organization does the speaker use? Justify.
The type of organization used by the speaker is the topical order. Topical order
results when the speaker divides the speech topic into subtopics, each of which
becomes a main point in the speech. The topic of this speech is why the screens make
us less happy. The speaker first divides the speech causally into two categories. The
speaker explains the screens make us less happy because the screens take up too

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much of our personal time. Then, the speaker discusses the screens make us less
happy because the screens have no stopping cues. Next, the speaker comes out with a
solution to the topic. The speaker suggests that the screens make us less happy so we
should stop using phones. Hence, the specific purpose, central idea and main points
of the speech might be:
Topic: Why the screens make us less happy?
General Purpose: To persuade
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that the screens make us less happy and
we should stop using the screens.
Central Idea: The screens make us less happy as the screens take up too much of our
personal time and have no stopping cues, so we should stop using phones.
Main Points:
1. The screens make us less happy because the screens take up too much of our
personal time.
2. The screens make us less happy because the screens have no stopping cues.
3. The screens make us less happy so we should stop using the phones.
This speech would not be a good topical order because the main point III is
inconsistent with the rest of the main points. It deals with a suggestion to stop using
the screens, whereas the main points I and II deal with the reasons why the screens
make people less happy.
5. How does the speaker use the resources of the language? Explain.
One of the resources of the language that the speaker used in the speech is using
the language accurately. It means that use the right words that accurate to the speech.
This is because some of the words’ meaning is roughly the same thing but they still
have different shades of meaning that we need to get certainty before using them. In
his speech (0:26) “…It doesn’t mean everyone goes in and eats dog food, but
businesspeople will use their own products to demonstrate that they feel, that they’re
confident in them.” he uses the word demonstrate instead of “testifying to” or
“evidence”. When we look in thesaurus these words are synonyms but we need to
choose them wisely so that it related and accurate to the speech.

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Next, the speaker is using the language clearly. A speaker’s meaning needs to be
immediately comprehensible and so clear to the audience so that the audience does
not misunderstand the speech. To ensure the language is used clearly, we can choose
to use concrete words. Concrete words are referring to tangible objects. In his speech
(0:43), “Turns out there’s one industry where this happens in a common way, in a
pretty regular way and that is the screen-based tech industry. So, in 2010, Steve
Jobs, when he was releasing the iPad,…” we can see that the words become less
abstract and became more concrete. He started using the general concept (one
industry), descend to one type of industry (screen-based tech industry), to one
specific professional screen (Steve Jobs).
Moreover, the speaker is using the language vividly. Rhythm is one of the
important ways to use language vividly. One way you can use the rhythm and flow of
language to enhance your meaning is by using repetition. Repetition means
reiterating the same set of words located at the beginning or the end of the sentence.
In his speech (5:00), he repeats the same set of words which is “A stopping cue is
basically a signal that it’s time to move on, to do something new, to do something
different.” As a result, repetition emphasizes an idea by stating it more than once and
help create a strong emotional effect.
Lastly, the speaker also used the language appropriately. To make the speech
being accurate, clear and vivid, the language used should be appropriate to the
audience. In his speech (1:00), “So, in 2010, Steve Jobs, when he was releasing the
iPad. He described the iPad as a device that was ‘extraordinary’, the best browsing
experience you’ve ever had, way better than a laptop, way better than a
smartphone.”. We can conclude that the speaker is using the language
appropriateness to the topic as he uses the words that related to the iPad wisely and
directly when he explained about the iPad.
6. What are the types of connective used by the speaker in the speech? Are they
effectively used? Give examples.
The types of connectives that are used by the speaker in the speech are
transitions, internal previews and signposts. Transition indicates that the speaker has
finished one thought and is ready to move to another. In transition, the word ‘but’ is
usually used to make the previous point related to the next point. In his speech (0:20),

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“…Now, this is a widespread practice, but what I think what’s really interesting is
when you find exceptions to this rule, when you find cases of businesses or people in
businesses who don’t use their own products.”. This connective is effectively used by
the speaker when he indicates that he already finish with one thought and ready to
move to another thought.
Next, the connective used by the speaker is internal preview which means that
statement in the body indicating the point speaker will discuss next concisely. The
speaker uses internal preview before he explains all of those points in more detail. In
his speech (1:57), the speaker explains that he will focus on how much time screens
take from us then he will focusing on what that time looks like “I’ve been studying
the effect of screens on our lives and I want to start by focusing on how much time
they take from us and then we can talk about what that time looks like.”
Lastly, the connective that is used in the speech is signposts. Signposts are used
to ensure where you are in the speech and to ensure that the audience is following
your speech and being on track. In his speech (2:45), “…that leaves this white space.
That’s our personal time. That space is incredibly important to us. That’s the space
where we do things that make us individuals. That’s where hobbies happen, where we
have close relationships, where we really think about our lives, where we get
creative, where we zoom back whether our lives have been meaningful.”. The
speaker uses the signposts effectively when he makes the audience pay attention to
key ideas with a simple phrase. The sentence “That space is incredibly important to
us” alerts the audience that a significant point is coming up.
7. Explain the speaker’s voice during the speech.
The first aspect of the voice in the speech is volume. A powerful voice was
essential for an orator. The speaker is speaking with a clear and high volume of voice
so that the audience could hear his speech.
After that is pronunciation. The speaker was giving out his speech with clear
pronunciation as well as his explanation to the audience. In the speech (01:31), “This
is a very common thing in the tech world”. The speaker pronounces “a” as “urrr” and
not “airr” as some people might pronounce `a` as `airr` in their conversation.
Next is the speaker’s articulation. Articulation is different compared with
pronunciation. Sloppy articulation is unable to form particular speech sounds clearly

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and distinctly. It is one of several causes of mispronunciation, but people can
articulate a word sharply and still mispronounce it. In the speech (03:29), “Eight years
later, this much.” the speaker pronounces “later” as “latta”.
Furthermore is the speaker’s vocal variety. The speaker should strive for vocal
variety and changes in rate, pitch, and volume which will make their voice interesting
and expressive. In the speech (09:07), “Your life will be richer and more
meaningful because you breathe in that experience, and because you've left your phone in
the car”. The speaker received applause from the audience because of what he said,
but also because of how he said it. Addressing the audience without notes, he spoke
extemporaneously with strong eye contact and excellent vocal variety.
The next aspect of the speaker’s voice is paused in the speech. Pauses is crucial
in the speech as it can signal the end of a thought unit, provide an ideal time to sink
in and lend significant impact to a statement. In the speech (03:56), “I live in New
York, a lot of my family lives in Australia, and I have a one-year-old son”. The speaker had
a short pause in his speech at the sentence between “New York” and “a lot of my family” to
modulate the rate and rhythm of his messages.
Next, the aspect included in the speech is pitch. Changes in pitch are known as
inflections. The speaker instinctively used inflections to convey meaning and
emotion in his speech. In the speech (08:27), the speaker used the high and lower
pitch to attract the audience’s attention from focusing to other things “So what's the
take home here? Screens are miraculous; I've already said that, and I feel that it's
true. But the way we use them is a lot like driving down a really fast, long road, and you're
in a car where the accelerator is mashed to the floor, it's kind of hard to reach the brake
pedal “.
The other aspect of the speaker’s voice is dialect. Dialect is a variety of a language
distinguished by variations of accent, grammar and vocabulary. In this speech, the
speaker is using General American’s dialect which is full of the pronunciation of
“all” or “r” sounds. In the speech (04:13), “If you stop people while they're using them
and say, "Tell us how you feel right now," they say they feel pretty good about these apps
-- those that focus on relaxation, exercise, weather, reading, education and health”. His
pronunciation of `r` is full and clear.
The last aspect of the speaker’s voice is rate. The rate refers to the speed at which a
person speaks. The best rate of speech depends on the vocal attributes of the speaker,

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the mood that trying to create, the composition of the audience and the nature of the
occasion. In the speech (01:48), “So when I heard about this, I thought it was interesting
and surprising, and it pushed me to consider what screens were doing to me and to my
family and the people I loved, and to people at large”.
8. Explain the speaker’s body during the speech.
The speaker’s personal appearance is important as it gives a good impression to
the audience. The speaker in this speech is wearing a semi-formal attire and have a
neat hairstyle. Before giving out the speech, the speaker walking to the stage with a
nice appearance and full of confidence.
Besides, the speaker used natural gestures during the speech. In the speech (2:51),
“That's our personal time. That space is incredibly important to us. That's the space where
we do things that make us individuals. That's where hobbies happen, where we have close
relationships, where we really think about our lives, where we get creative, where we
zoom back and try to work out whether our lives have been meaningful.” The gestures of
the speaker appear naturally and help him to clarify or reinforce the ideas to the audience.
Next is the speaker’s movement during the speech. The speaker is giving his
speech with confidence and established eye contact with the audience. This is very
crucial as it will help to improve the image of the speakers with the audience.
Lastly is the speaker’s eye contact during the speech. Eye contact helps to assess
the authenticity, wisdom, attitude and feeling of the speaker. In the speech (4:44),
“What's interesting about these -- dating, social networking, gaming, entertainment, news,
web browsing -- people spend 27 minutes a day on each of these. We're spending three
times longer on the apps that don't make us happy. That doesn't seem very wise.”, the
speaker`s eyes were moving around and looking at his audience as he was trying to deliver
his speech confidently to his audience with the help of a slide on widescreen.
9. What kind of reasoning does the speaker rely most throughout the speech?
Explain.
The reasoning that the speaker relies on the most throughout the speech is causal
reasoning. Causal reasoning is an analysis that seeks to establish a cause and effect
relationship. Which are the causes of consequences when something occurs and we
wonder what caused it to happen, which are the effects of the causes. From the video
(04:56), “One of the reasons we spend so much time on these apps that make us

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unhappy is they rob us of stopping cues.”. The speakers show that the reason for
spending too much time on apps is we have no stopping cues.
There are a few fallacies in the speaker’s speech. The fallacy is possible to
describe as inaccuracies or errors in reasoning. The speaker used appeal to novelty
fallacy in the speech by assuming something new is automatically better than old. In
the speech (03:50), “I live in New York, a lot of my family lives in Australia, and I
have a one-year-old son. The way I've been able to introduce them to him is with
screens. I couldn't have done that 15 or 20 years ago in quite the same way. So
there's a lot of good that comes from them”.
Besides, the speaker also used an invalid analogy fallacy in his speech. In the
video (08.30), “But the way we use them is a lot like driving down a really fast, long
road, and you're in a car where the accelerator is mashed to the floor, it's kind of
hard to reach the brake pedal”. The speaker compared the uses of phones with cases
that are not essentially alike.
Lastly, the fallacy in the speech is either-or. It means forcing a choice between
two alternatives when more than two exist. In the speech (08:45), “You've got a
choice. You can either glide by, past, say, the beautiful ocean scenes and take snaps
out the window -- that's the easy thing to do -- or you can go out of your way to move
the car to the side of the road, to push that brake pedal, to get out, take off your shoes
and socks, take a couple of steps onto the sand, feel what the sand feels like under
your feet, walk to the ocean, and let the ocean lap at your ankles”.
10. What type of emotional appeal does the speaker use? Are they effectively
used? Explain.
The speaker spoke with sincerity and conviction to generate emotional appeal.
The emotion of the speaker can be delivered to the audience through his words, tone
of voice, rate of speech, gestures and facial gestures. The example of the speaker
speaks with sincerity and conviction is when he talked about how he restricted
himself from holding a phone during dinner. In the speech (07:42), “I think a far better
strategy is to say, I do certain things every day, there are certain occasions that happen
every day, like eating dinner. Sometimes I'll be alone, sometimes with other
people, sometimes in a restaurant, sometimes at home, but the rule that I've adopted is: I
will never use my phone at the table. It's far away, as far away as possible. Because we're

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really bad at resisting temptation. But when you have a stopping cue that, every time
dinner begins, my phone goes far away, you avoid temptation all together. At first, it hurts.
I had massive FOMO. I struggled”, the speaker expressed his feelings towards how he
held himself from holding phones during his activities. The whole speech had emotional
appeal here and there because the audience feels amazed, laughed and clapped for him. So.
the speaker had used emotional appeal effectively.
11. What methods are used to prepare the audience for ending the speech?
The method that the speaker used to prepare the audience for ending the speech
is dissolve ending. Dissolve ending is a conclusion that creates emotional attraction
by fading to a dramatic final statement step-by-step.
The speaker described the uses of the screens as driving down a really fast, long
road and explaining the expressions of walking onto the sand. This lets the audience
to imagine the situation that the speaker described. In the video (08:27), “…But the
way we use them is a lot like driving down a really fast, long road, and you're in a car
where the accelerator is mashed to the floor, it's kind of hard to reach the brake
pedal. You've got a choice. You can either glide by, past, say, the beautiful ocean
scenes and take snaps out the window -- that's the easy thing to do -- or you can go out of
your way to move the car to the side of the road, to push that brake pedal, to get out, take
off your shoes and socks, take a couple of steps onto the sand, feel what the sand feels like
under your feet, walk to the ocean, and let the ocean lap at your ankles.”.
12. How does the speaker reinforce the central idea? Explain.
The speaker reinforces the central idea by making a dramatic statement. The
speaker designs his own dramatic statement rather than using another method to give
the conclusion power and vitality.
From the speech, we can see that the speaker reinforces the idea by giving the
audience a dramatic statement in which he described the expressions of stop using the
phones as enjoying the scene at the beach. In the video (08:27), “…You can either
glide by, past, say, the beautiful ocean scenes and take snaps out the window -- that's the
easy thing to do -- or you can go out of your way to move the car to the side of the
road, to push that brake pedal, to get out, take off your shoes and socks, take a couple of
steps onto the sand, feel what the sand feels like under your feet, walk to the ocean, and

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let the ocean lap at your ankles. Your life will be richer and more meaningful because you
breathe in that experience, and because you've left your phone in the car. ”.
Reference
1. Alter, A., 2017. Why Our Screens Make Us Less Happy?. [online] TED.
Available at:
<https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_alter_why_our_screens_make_us_less_happy/
transcript?
utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare>
[Accessed 11 November 2020].
2. E. Lucas, S., 2015. The Art Of Public Speaking. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-
Hill Education, pp.165-35