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Braxton Wright

Lacy Nisbett

EN 102-326

2 March 2019

Research Scope

There is no question the cats have long had the hearts of many people around the world.

This love has spread to people any age, race, shape or size, and in some way brings us all

together as one. It could be traced back to how they love us back or how they as a species as a

whole just seem not to take anything too seriously and how they bring a sense of calmness to the

home. Over the years, the evolution of the internet has shed a great light on cats, whether it’s a

funny video cats playing piano or a kitten sleeping with a puppy, social media has made owning

a cat seem like something that everyone needs to do. At one point in time cats were seen as dull

and not the animal to get if you wanted to have a good time with your pet but in the last few

years everything has changed. Why have people started to embrace the randomness that happens

every day when owning a cat? Why is it that cats have taken over social media in a way that

shows them as being funny and careless? How will this affect the future in owning a cat,

especially the way we take care of them; will it get easier? Who owns more cats, millennials or

baby boomers? For this research, I will attempt to make sense of it all and discover why cats

have taken off and are as of now the most popular pet in the world.
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Annotated Bibliography

Barnard, Elena, Facebook Share on Twitter Share, and Google. "Internet Cats: Why Are Felines

so Popular Online?" Animal Friends. Animal Friends, 23 Nov. 2018. Web. 03 Mar. 2019.

<https://www.animalfriends.co.uk/blog/internet-cats/>.

Found through Google search while looking up why are cats so popular. This article

discusses how we as a culture have been more accepting of cats maybe because we as

humans can relate to how cats act and also it talks about why we might find it funny

because cats have a way about them that comes off as they don’t care about anything and

when we catch them doing something different than the average sleep, we think it’s

hilarious.

This article is not biased when it comes to cat v. dogs, as it states in the end, so it could

be used as a credible source when it comes to why we think cats are funny. I need to dig

deeper on how social media has contributed to what was discussed in the article.

Lopez, Cynthia. "Why Is the Internet Obsessed with Cats (Infographic)?" Pet Life Today. N.p.,

10 Jan. 2019. Web. 03 Mar. 2019. <https://petlifetoday.com/why-is-the-internet-

obsessed-with-cats/>.

Lopez’s article discusses how the internet has led to the population loving cats. She starts

by explaining how the cat obsession isn’t new and how it can be traced back thousands of

years to the Ancient Egyptians. The article then leads into a graphic that shows the pros
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and cons of why people love cats over dogs and different examples of photos and videos

from the internet that have gone viral.

This source explains things in a graphic way which I think is very easy to comprehend

I don’t think this piece is biased considering it states a lot of cold-hard-facts, but I do feel

as if it needs more information on why we as humans are so infatuated with cats and

why we think they are so funny when they do something out of the ordinary.

sambrinkman, Samantha Brinkman / Photographer / @Sambrinkmanstuart Stalter / Features

Reporter / @Videttestussamantha Brinkman / Photographer /. “Cats vs. Dogs: ISU

Students Weigh in on Their ‘Purrfect’ ‘Man’s Best Friend.’” UWIRE Text, 2017.

EBSCOhost,

libdata.lib.ua.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eds

gao&AN=edsgcl.524221674&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This academic article confirms what has been said in the previous two articles. It

discusses why students at a specific college campus love their dogs and cats but it also

confirms that the preferred pet is by far a dog. I think this is a good side view that goes

against what the previous two articles stated. It confirms that while cats may be

considered the most popular because more people own cats rather than dogs, it might be

because of the way cats take care of themselves and how they are low maintenance

especially if you travel a lot, as stated in the article.

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I definitely think this article is credible as it comes as a result of surveys and opinion

questionnaires from a specific group of people from a specific place. I also like that it is

not one sided it gives thoughts equally from both points and not just from cat owners or

dog owners perspective. While it doesn’t talk about how social media impacts opinions I

think it is still good information and will add to my research in a positive way.
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Research Synthesis

For this paper, I plan to use Lopez’s article “Why Is the Internet Obsessed with Cats

(Infographic)?” to show that social media has in-fact changed the way we as society see cat

behavior and how we think it is funny. All the sources found will contribute to this claim and I

plan to mostly use the appeal to pathos by giving examples given in my main article to explain

why we think cats are so funny on the internet. I also want to add credibility by finding

additional sources that appeal to ethos and logos to balance out the paper as a whole. These

sources will hopefully explain why cat in the media is different than dogs in the media by having

facts to back up why the public finds cats more funny than dogs. I will also need to be incredibly

specific in my search to find more articles as it is very important to find not only dogs vs. cats

articles but dogs vs. cats in media articles.