Abstract
This article is specifically looking at Care.com and it rhetorical situation and genre patterns. The main focus of this article is on the review section of the babysitter’s Care.com profile. The author of the review can use words and phrases to persuade the reader to either hire or not even consider the babysitter.
Rhetorical Nature of Care.com
Care.com gives parents the opportunity to post a job ad online or to browse the profiles of potential babysitters. Since the launching of Care.com, it has blossomed into an all-around care website. Other services that they provide include: senior care, pet care, special needs care, housekeeping, and tutoring services. For the purposes of this wiki article, we will keep the focus on finding babysitters online and Community Building.
On one profile for a 21 year old babysitter, I read four reviews. All of which were negative. The first review gave her a one star out of five and then wrote, “I had set up an interview with this candidate and then never heard from her again. I even called her the day of the interview to make sure she was not lost after she was late for our meeting. Not the best first impression and a waste of my time,” (Care.com, Inc.).
The word usage in the review section and the personal accounts greatly influence the opinions of the readers. In this negative review, the writer made it known how irritated they were that she had been late to the interview by using the phrase “waste of my time”. This phrase is powerful and makes the reader not even want to consider this person as a care provider for their own children. On the other end of the spectrum, the personal account shown above evokes good feelings about the babysitter by the parents using the adjective “wonderful”. The account also lists off the several chores that the babysitter does for the family and the activities that she does with the children. Giving concrete examples of how Care.com has helped families find these great babysitters allows potential members or new users to see the success of this website.
A second poor review that I came across was interesting to me, because it gave the 19 year old babysitter a chance to rebuttal. The review was a one star that read,
Jana worked for our family for 4 hours. She called my wife while my wife and I were at work on the 1st day after 4 hours and said she was quitting and that my wife needed to come get the kids. My wife had to leave work, pick up our kids and Jana stated she had too much going on in her life to keep up with the job. I don't get it. She knew we had 2 kids, house work (laundry, cooking, etc.), and that is it?? Jana even had the nerve to ask "How much am I getting paid for 4 hours of work?"
Jana’s response was,
I told your wife that my mom had given me some really bad news. Life changing news. I told your wife I could stay until the end of the week but she insisted on getting the kids now to let me leave. I was there from 7 a.m. -1 p.m. and finished everything you had wanted me to do. The house was clean and the kids did their chores. When your wife arrived, I apologized and she seemed sympathetic saying that it happens and you've got to take care of your business. I did not ask how much I was getting paid. In fact, it wasn't even on my mind at the time. Your wife said she would give me 50$ for the day and we discussed how I would pick it up. I understand that this was very frustrating, and I apologize. But please, if you knew the situation you would understand, (Care.com, Inc.).
The parent’s review insinuated feelings of annoyance and irritation by the use of the phrase, "Jana even had the nerve to ask…". This word usage gives the readers the impression that that was the last straw. In the review, the parent decided to focus more on the facts, such as Jana had only worked for their family for 4 hours. The parent did not even mention the reasons behind her decision to quit. Overall in Jana’s rebuttal, she maintained a professional tone despite her mere age of 19. Jana tries to use her response as a way to gain the sympathy of not only the reviewer, but also other parents that look at her profile. Jana evokes sympathy by saying, “But please, if you knew the situation you would understand.”
Patterns within the Community
In the review section of Care.com, each review contains a star rating (five stars being the best, and one star being the worst), and then an explanation for the number of stars awarded to the babysitter. The positive reviews reflect the parents’ appreciation for the hard work of the babysitter, whereas the negative reviews tend to simply state the facts. An example of a positive review found on Care.com, reads as follows,
“Helen is flexible with my schedule and focuses on Elle my daughter more than just 'watching', but also engages with her educationally. She also keeps me informed of needs and good reports :)”.
The parent who wrote the review used quotes around the word “watching”, which makes the reader feel like babysitters should do more than merely watching the children; the babysitter should actually play with the children and get them to be active. Also in this example, the reviewer used a smiley face at the end of the review. While the content of the review maintained professionalism, the parent ended the review with a smiley face. This makes it seem as though the parent wanted to prove her happiness with Helen to the people reading the review. The negative reviews on the other hand usually do not show a lot of emotion and just state the facts. There are rare occasions of parents tearing down the babysitter, though. An example of a negative review that is short, but to the point is,
“Rachelle scheduled an interview with us and decided to no show without any notice.”
Here, the parent did not evoke very much emotion. The parent simply stated that Rachelle did not show up to the interview; however, by writing “decided” and “without and notice”, the parent is subtly showing the bitterness of the situation.
Media Ideologies
It can be seen that users' media-ideologies are different depending on a goal. If the user's goal is to find a babysitting job, the use of the site would be much different than if their goal was to find a qualified babysitter. Showing the best qualities possible is necessary for the babysitter, but negative or positive reviews are perhaps more important to a client, as they are more helpful. Thus, the method in which a user uses the site depends on their intended actions.
References
Care.com, Inc, . "Care.com There For You." Care.com, n.d. Web. 2 Nov 2011. <https://www.care.com/>.
Gershon, Ilana. The Breakup 2.0 Disconnecting over New Media. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2010. Print.