Blog 2 Timing is Everything

When thinking of kairos I remember back to a cell phone commercial I have seen which depicted a certain provider its’ audience should use. In this commercial there was a group of workers who were all sent the same joke on their cell phones while car pooling to work. As three of the four workers received the message first and began laughing, it left the fourth worker out of the circle being that his provider was not as fast as the others. It was not until a few moments later that the fourth worker fully received the message and began laughing which led the other three looking at him like he was insane. This implicit argument focused more on persuading the audiences’ view towards buying their service being that they portrayed offering a faster and more reliable data plan. Though the kairos in this commercial could be looked at by pointing out the timing of the downloaded message and responses, it can also be recognized by looking at all the other services coming out with their new plans at the same time. With commercials like this sticking out more than most it tends to play deeper in the mind of the consumer as he or she goes out to purchase their next product.

            I often find myself using kairos on a daily basis as I talk to young men and women about their career opportunities. At any given moment if I am to veer off a relative subject an applicant was looking for, the kairotic moment for keeping the individual interested may be lost. As I have quickly found many ways to strengthen my skills in determining the right time and appropriateness to build better kairotic moments with applicants, I don’t necessarily have that same ability with my wife. I am regularly told by my wife that I hardly think before I speak and in doing so I usually dig myself a hole to climb in. Page 116 of the Writing Arguments explains that considering using proper kairos helps the effectiveness of an argument to increase. I can only imagine if I were to use the proper timing and appropriateness when talking to my wife on certain occasions how much more caring I would be considered.