User:BeanBean677/Kairos Sandbox

Kairos (καιρός) is an Ancient Greek word meaning the right, critical, or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos (χρόνος) and kairos. While t The former refers to chronological passing of time, while the latter signifies a proper or opportune time for action. What is happening when referring to kairos depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. Kairos also means weather in Modern Greek. The plural, καιροί (kairoi (Ancient and Modern Greek)) means the times.

Origins
In Onians' 1951 etymological studies of the word, he traces the primary root back to the ancient Greek association with both archery and weaving. In archery, kairos denotes the moment in which an arrow may be fired with sufficient force to penetrate a target. In weaving, kairos denotes the moment in which the shuttle could be passed through threads on the loom.

Kairos is also an alternate spelling of the minor Greek deity Caerus, the god of luck and opportunity.

Modern rhetorical definition
In his article "Critical-Rhetorical Ethnography: Rethinking the Place and Process of Rhetoric,", Aaron Hess submits a definition of kairos for the present day that bridges the two classical applications. Hess addresses Poulakos’s view that, “In short, kairos dictates that what is said must be said at the right time.” He also suggests that in addition to timeliness kairos considers appropriateness. According to Hess, kairos can either be understood as, "the decorum or propriety of any given moment and speech act, implying a reliance on the given or known" or as, "the opportune, spontaneous, or timely." Although these two ideas of kairos might seem conflicting, Hess says that they offer a more extensive understanding of the term. Furthermore, they encourage creativity, which is necessary to adapt to unforeseen obstacles and opinions that can alter the opportune or appropriate moment, i.e. kairos. Being able to recognize the propriety of a situation while having the ability to adapt one’s rhetoric allows taking advantage of kairos to be successful. Hess’s updated definition of kairos concludes that along with taking advantage of the timeliness and appropriateness of a situation, the term also implies being knowledgeable of and involved in the environment where the situation is taking place in order to benefit fully from seizing the opportune moment.

Hess's somewhat conflicting perspective on kairos is exemplified by the disagreement between Lloyd F. Bitzer and Richard E. Vatz about the rhetorical situation. Bitzer argues that rhetorical situations exist independent of human perspective; a situation invites discourse. He discusses the feeling of a missed opportunity to speak (kairos) and the tendency to later create a speech in response to that unseized moment. However, Vatz counters Bitzer's view by claiming that a situation is made rhetorical by the perception of its interpreter and the way which they choose to respond to it, whether with discourse or not. It is the rhetor's responsibility to give an event meaning through linguistic depiction. Bitzer's and Vatz's perspectives add depth to Hess's ideas that kairos is concerned with both timeliness and appropriateness. On one hand, Bitzer's argument supports Hess's claim that kairos is spontaneous, and one must be able to recognize the situation as opportune in order to take advantage of it. On the other hand, Vatz's idea that the rhetor is responsible reinforces Hess's suggestion of the need to be knowledgeable and involved in the surrounding environment in order to fully profit from the situation.

Kairos' modern English definition is vague. There is no one word in today's English language that completely encompasses the definition of kairos, similar to that of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. In his article "The Ethics of Argument: Rereading Kairos and Making Sense in a Timely Fashion," Michael Harker says, "Like the 'points' on the rhetorical triangle, the meaning of kairos is not definitive but rather a starting point for grasping the whole of an argument." Kairos' inclusion in modern composition has not been implicitly made, but there are undertones. Various components of kairos are included in modern composition and have made profound effects on modern composition theory.

Kairos in digital media
The historical context of the definition of kairos may make the concept appear outdated. However, the relevancy of kairos is at its peak as the world has rapidly transformed into a society dependent on digital technology. In order to recognize how kairos can be applied to online media and the challenges that occur as a result, a broad definition of the term is required. One definition makes the application of kairos to digital media easy to recognize, as it states kairos can be referred to as particular moment in which success is achieved when an opening is pursued with force. This definition prompts a main issue within the application of kairos to online content: if timing is crucial to the message of communication that is being received, how can we communicate effectively online, where anything can be published at any time?

The difficulty with modern rhetoric in the digital space is that the audience is less easily influenced by the rhetor. As such, it is difficult for rhetors to utilize kairos to the best of their abilities. Due to the nature of which modern audiences in the electronic age consume media, it is highly possible that they are multi-tasking, with their attention divided among multiple sources. This difficulty is compounded with the fact that this audience can consume discourse at different times, in different places, and through varying mediums. As a result, the audience is able to assign encountered discourse at various levels of personal priority. With this, they are able to discern which discourse they think is vital or interesting, and discard those they deem trivial or unworthy of their attention.

There are also multiple external factors that lead to the difficulty in using kairos in a modern setting. Since computer hardware, software, and even the underlying operating system all differ between people, it is difficult for the orator to take account for every permutation possible. Couple this with the lack of a true shared community online, since such virtual “cloakroom communities” are only temporary, and the difficulties in using Kairos in the digital age becomes painfully clear.

Some scholars studying kairos in the modern digital sphere argue that the aspects of body/ identity, distribution/ circulation, access/ accessibility, interaction, and economics are handled differently in an online setting and therefore messages that are sent digitally need to be altered to fit the new circumstances. In order to reach online audiences effectively, scholars suggest that context of the information's use, which includes considerations of legal, health-related, disciplinary, and political factors paired with smart rhetorical thinking can solve the issue of miscommunicated messages distributed on online forums.

The problem of context in the digital world
The idea of the importance of context is essential in understanding how modern kairos differs from classical kairos as a result of the lack of awareness of the time that a message is being published by online users. The lack of mindfulness of timing by Internet users is of specific interest to some scholars and as a result has generated fascinating research and discussion. Some researchers explain that users generating content online are unaware of the significance of the context surrounding the message as the time of its composition, which alters how the message is perceived. In a study published in 2015, one scholar concludes that frequency cognitive innate errors such as predisposition and involuntary behavior cause users to lack a consciousness of the present.

In order to solve this problem, one suggestion is to be mindful of different communication contexts during the composition of the message that will be sent. Studies show that practicing this will result in establishing exigence with the audience, which improves the likelihood of successful communication of the message at hand. Additionally, investigating the digital setting in which the information will be sent can allow the sender to shape the content in a way that would lead to a well-received message. Another recommendation by scholars is to access intrapersonal rhetoric, in which the sender of the message can internally reflect on choices that can be made in order to improve the chance that their message is successfully received online. Kairos in the digital world presents obstacles of how timing interferes with the reception of a message, and scholars are continuously working today to determine effective ways to overcome these online boundaries.