Violent media is good for kids
Thesis statement
The negative impacts of violent media as opposed to the opinions that will be brought forward through a critical analysis of “violent media is good for kids” by Gerald Jones
Introduction
We live in an environment where media forms the basis of our lives. It affects our thinking, interactions and social behavior. Media can be used for positive or bad purpose, depending on the kind of media an individual is exposed to. Gerald Jones, in his article, seeks to argue on the effectiveness of violent media as a means of shaping a child’s character. He encourages parents to expose children to such media, even as critics find such sentiments to be utterly outrageous.
Gerald uses his life to highlight the benefits of violent media. He says that while growing up; he was sheltered from the ills of society by his mother who was saw violent media as corruptive. His school and everyone around him thought of violent media as a vice. He always admired the pop culture but grew up as an otherwise nice boy. He could not access any of the things he admired most in media. At thirteen, a student his mother taught encouraged her to buy him Marvel Comics, citing the benefits. He was then allowed to access it, and grew courageous under the influence of his heroic character, Hulk, in Marvel comics. Through Hulk, he conquered his fears and became more confident. He says that his son, too, is exposed to such media that helps shape his manly character. The rage he had buried inside him for so long came alive when he met Hulk, who also led him towards his writing career by making him assertive. He names violent media as creative violence.
Jones gives his son as evidence. His son was always scared of climbing trees, and he watched as his friends in Kindergarten got involve in the act. Upon realizing his weakness and fear of centipedes, he read him Tarzan violent comics. His son was able to climb the tree after two weeks. In addition, he quotes psychologist Melanie Moore who also supports violent media for children and says it helps them release deep feelings that society pressures them to deny. She says acceptance of those feelings makes them resilient. She says violent pop culture does have a place some developmental aspects of children. In addition, she tells the story of a young girl who had explosive moments and was angry because her parents were separating. They helped her tell and wrote her comic stories, and she eventually calmed down and achieved a strong character. Moreover, they tell a story of another older girl used gangster rap to cope with the chaos in her family. He manages to tell the reader that he is not making all his writing up by providing real life stories.
The writer personifies the character of Hulk, who is just a cartoon in a comic book. He gives Hulk the personality of a role model and talks of the character as if it were a human being. Through sentiments such as ‘he helped me’, the audience would think Hulk is human. In addition, the writer uses “bloodthirsty dinosaur” as a metaphor for his son’s power, control and strength. The article is informative. The writer also embraces humorous aspects in the article that would make the reader laugh.
The writer only seems to appreciate aggressive characters in his work. He does not see calm people as having any character at all. It is a correct that children need to be strong and confident. However, high degrees of such characters would affect how they relate to their peers. Besides, it is not wrong to be quiet, humble and peaceful. Those are also exemplary characters in individuals and have their place in life. The writer does not seem to appreciate the diversity in character that occurs because children are all different.
Conclusion
Even though, his essay is informative, John needed to recognize that violent media can permanently damage children. It impairs their social life, causes them nightmares and interferes with the natural way children are supposed to grow. In addition, it causes indiscipline in children, and they sometimes end up having bad attitudes. Children should be given roon to be just that, children.
