We're All Doomed!

Tegan Condet

Humanities 101

Ms. Waldenberger

2 October 2012

We’re All Doomed!

            The article I found comes from the textbook What Matters in America: Reading and Writing About Contemporary Culture that I have for my English 103 class this semester.  The article is called “Yahoo Says Americans Work Too Much”. The article was originally posted on WebProNews on 6 April 2007.  In tis article, Jason Lee Miller says that according to a Yahoo survey, Americans are working too much.  Miller provides evidence to support this thesis statement with quotes from Yahoo marketing officials and statistics from the Yahoo surveys.  One piece of evidence he uses is a direct quote from vice president of marketing for Yahoo HotJobs Susan Vobejda: “’With 67 percent of respondents admitting to having used a wireless device to connect with work while on vacation, signs indicate that the American workforce may be facing a burnout’” (Miller 276).  He also states “Vobejda says all that connectivity has changed the physical parameters of the workplace, and has extended the workday” (Miler 276).  Miller provides the argument that “An American in the 21^st Century has to work 25 years to get the same number of paid vacation days that are mandatory minimums in Europe” (Miller 276).  While the direct quotes from the vice president of Yahoo HotJobs are a reliable source, with these random statistics about European vacation days the author provides no credentials.  However, when reading the article, I found myself becoming amazed that we get so little vacation time compared to Europeans that I didn’t quite stop to think about where the author may have been getting his information.  Maybe his sources are credible, but in simply reading his article the audience has no proof.  Another form of evidence he uses is Yahoo survey results.  Most of us can accept that Yahoo is a credible source of information, and agree that a lot of what we read in Yahoo news is information we believe to be true.  The results of the Yahoo HotJobs surveys are as follows: “The majority (61 percent) agree that wireless devices make them feel like they have more freedom; Sixty-five percent say wireless devices allow them to work remotely and have a more flexible schedule; Almost half (48 percent) report that wireless devices allow them to spend more time with family and friends; and An overwhelming 70 percent agrees that they are more productive thanks to a wireless device” (Miller 277).

            I think the author of this article did a good job of providing credible evidence for his thesis, and I also found the article quite interesting.  It made me consider how attached I am to my cell phone and how often I am working when I’m not even at work.

Work Cited

Miller, Jason Lee. “Yahoo Says Americans Work Too Much.” WebProNews 6 April                      2007. Web. Rpt. In What Maters in America: Reading and Writing About       Contemporary Culture Ed. Gary Goshgarian. 3^rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 276- 277. Print.