1. What is the writer’s overall argument? What does s/he want the reader to consider?
The author’s overall argument is that children, particularly those suffering from low self-confidence, should expose themselves to violent media because of its potential psychological benefits. A child being exposed to violent media, the author contends, is a necessary and legitimate outlet for expressing suppressed emotions such as rage, fear, greed, and loneliness (“Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of our selves that we try not to experience in our lives but often want, even need, to experience vicariously through stories of others.”). Void of an outlet to express these natural emotions, a child is left unequipped to handle them in a positive and productive manner when they arise. Having an outlet to express these feelings through stories filled with heroism and violence, a child has, in turn, the potential to increase their self-confidence and to lessen their feelings of loneliness. This increase in self-confidence and alleviation of loneliness comes primarily from the child relating to and living vicariously through the characters in the form of violent media they choose: “People integrating the scariest, most fervently denied fragments of their psyches into fuller senses of selfhood through fantasies of superhuman combat and destruction.” “…people pulling themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves into violent stories.” Suppressing these emotions (as is expected in society: “Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into more whole, more complex, [and] more resilient selfhood.”) at a young age runs the risk of children becoming adults who are easily manipulated and who lack self-confidence. The author wants parents to reconsider the belief that exposure to violent media will damage their children’s psychological development. 2. What evidence does the writer use to support his/her claims? The author uses personal experience, testimony from an expert, and several examples to support his claims. The author is an expert himself because of his professional relationship with a psychologist. Together, he and the psychologist performed a study on how adolescents use violent media to meet their emotional needs (their findings, the author claims, show that every form of violent media has a positive effect on the self-development of children: “We’ve found that every aspect of even the trashiest pop-culture story can have its own developmental functions.”). Though the author concedes that violent media can have possible detrimental effects (he mentions this so he can be seen as even handed and accepting of other arguments), he does not provide any scientific evidence to support this claim and to, thus, challenge his own hypothesis. The author also uses his experience as a child suffering from low self-confidence and subsequent, positive exposure to violent media as evidence that violent media has psychological benefits. Once exposed to the Incredible Hulk, the author became a child “unafraid of his desires and the world’s disapproval, unhesitating and effective in action.” A father, the author mentions how his son suffered from low self-confidence as he did …show more content…
Parents would be the main audience for this essay because they have final decision as to what is acceptable content that their children can consume. The general consensus among the average parent is that children should not view violent media because they may imitate what they see, read, or hear, but by mentioning his personal experience as an unhappy child being exposed to violent media (which provided an outlet for expressing suppressed emotions) and its subsequent positive effects on his self-confidence, the author is challenging that widely held …show more content…
Conventional wisdom contends that violent media is harmful to children, but the author flips this assertion on its head by claiming that violent media, instead, provides positive psychological benefits to children. The evidence that he presents to support his argument is underwhelming, at best. He does not provide any empirical data to support his claims (his study is the closest thing to empirical evidence, but it’s lacking). He relies mainly on his experience as a child, his experience as a parent, his experience dealing with his son who, like he, suffered from low self-confidence, and his experience working with several troubled children who, in the end, benefitted from being exposed to violent
The author’s overall argument is that children, particularly those suffering from low self-confidence, should expose themselves to violent media because of its potential psychological benefits. A child being exposed to violent media, the author contends, is a necessary and legitimate outlet for expressing suppressed emotions such as rage, fear, greed, and loneliness (“Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects of our selves that we try not to experience in our lives but often want, even need, to experience vicariously through stories of others.”). Void of an outlet to express these natural emotions, a child is left unequipped to handle them in a positive and productive manner when they arise. Having an outlet to express these feelings through stories filled with heroism and violence, a child has, in turn, the potential to increase their self-confidence and to lessen their feelings of loneliness. This increase in self-confidence and alleviation of loneliness comes primarily from the child relating to and living vicariously through the characters in the form of violent media they choose: “People integrating the scariest, most fervently denied fragments of their psyches into fuller senses of selfhood through fantasies of superhuman combat and destruction.” “…people pulling themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves into violent stories.” Suppressing these emotions (as is expected in society: “Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into more whole, more complex, [and] more resilient selfhood.”) at a young age runs the risk of children becoming adults who are easily manipulated and who lack self-confidence. The author wants parents to reconsider the belief that exposure to violent media will damage their children’s psychological development. 2. What evidence does the writer use to support his/her claims? The author uses personal experience, testimony from an expert, and several examples to support his claims. The author is an expert himself because of his professional relationship with a psychologist. Together, he and the psychologist performed a study on how adolescents use violent media to meet their emotional needs (their findings, the author claims, show that every form of violent media has a positive effect on the self-development of children: “We’ve found that every aspect of even the trashiest pop-culture story can have its own developmental functions.”). Though the author concedes that violent media can have possible detrimental effects (he mentions this so he can be seen as even handed and accepting of other arguments), he does not provide any scientific evidence to support this claim and to, thus, challenge his own hypothesis. The author also uses his experience as a child suffering from low self-confidence and subsequent, positive exposure to violent media as evidence that violent media has psychological benefits. Once exposed to the Incredible Hulk, the author became a child “unafraid of his desires and the world’s disapproval, unhesitating and effective in action.” A father, the author mentions how his son suffered from low self-confidence as he did …show more content…
Parents would be the main audience for this essay because they have final decision as to what is acceptable content that their children can consume. The general consensus among the average parent is that children should not view violent media because they may imitate what they see, read, or hear, but by mentioning his personal experience as an unhappy child being exposed to violent media (which provided an outlet for expressing suppressed emotions) and its subsequent positive effects on his self-confidence, the author is challenging that widely held …show more content…
Conventional wisdom contends that violent media is harmful to children, but the author flips this assertion on its head by claiming that violent media, instead, provides positive psychological benefits to children. The evidence that he presents to support his argument is underwhelming, at best. He does not provide any empirical data to support his claims (his study is the closest thing to empirical evidence, but it’s lacking). He relies mainly on his experience as a child, his experience as a parent, his experience dealing with his son who, like he, suffered from low self-confidence, and his experience working with several troubled children who, in the end, benefitted from being exposed to violent