The writer Gerald Jones, in his narrative essay, article, “Violent Media is good for kids,” recounts his dormant childhood and how it was changed by playing video games. Jones’ purpose is to convey the idea that video games are a game changer in kids’ lives. At a very early age, he was timid, he was not associating and was not recognized by other kids. The writer adopts a sentimental approach to tap into the similar feelings once experienced by adult readers. Jones begins his article by throwing a flash back to his childhood days at age 13, a period which he described as sensitive, fearful, insouciant, nervous and apprehensive being part of the social spectrum of other kids. Jones writes “At age 13 I was alone and afraid”. He identifies to his readers the difficulties of a child lacking confidence to grow into adolescence, and how he found violent video games an essential tool in childhood development. Jones explains on the automatic change that reconstructs his life through the “Incredible Hulk,” a giant super human that portrays strength and violence. He thus writes, “The character who caught me, and freed me, was the Hulk.” Furthermore, Jones presents his mother as a strict parent who prevented him from exposing to …show more content…
He writes “In my 30s, I found myself writing action movies and comic books. I wrote some Hulk stories, and met the geek-geniuses who created him. I saw my own creations turned into action figures, cartoons, and computer games.” Jones purpose of this article is to allay the fears of parents to see the good in video games as opposed to critics. He backs it up by quoting a psychiatric that works with teens. “Children need violent entertainment for them to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient self-hood,” Writes
According to Gerald Jones ""¦head-bonking cartoons, bloody videogames, playground karate, toy guns gives children a tool to master their rage." In a bid to further reinforce his assertion, Jones uses his own childhood as an example of how violent entertainment can benefit kids. In his opinion, "Hulk", a fictional character, helped him become more self-assured and confident. The author further points out that his son seemed to have overcome the fear of climbing trees after he (the author) read him Tarzan comics. In Jones' opinion, by shielding our children from all the violence in the media and denying them a chance to watch their favorite heroes, we could end up "confusing them about their natural aggression in the same way the Victorians confused their children about their sexuality." Thus according to the author, shielding our kids in the aforementioned way does more harm than good in the final analysis. Sometimes in 1997, Evan Ramsey, a student at Bethel Regional High School, carried a shotgun to school from where he went on a shooting spree. During the incident, Ramsey shot at four people killing two. Although the jury is still out on what really motivated the shootings in this case, Ruthus (2011) notes that Ramsey was an avid player of video games such as Resident Evil, Die Hard and Doom. Indeed, Ramsey as Ruthus points out was fond of playing these games for hours on end. What did these video games
In 2000, Gerard Jones “ Violent Media is Good for Kids”, was published by MotherJones.com. Jones concludes that violence is beneficial to kids in many ways, including rage management, building confidence, and allowing children to meet their emotional and developmental needs. He also argues that when parents attempt to shield their kids from violence it is more likely that they grow up to be passive and easily manipulated. Based on my knowledge and personal experience, I have found many of his points to be true and logical.
In the article, “Violent Media Is Good for Kids”, the author, Gerard Jones, begins by providing background information about himself. As a child, Jones was taught that violence was wrong, and as he grew up, he learned that violent comics and stories aided him to become an action movies and comic book writer. In his article, the author addresses why violent media are good for children. He points out that it helps them transform better socially, explore and conquer their feelings, and improves self-knowledge. Jones purpose is to inform readers about the positive use of violent media on children. The author uses rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos, and stylistic techniques such as allusions and repetitions to create his argument.
In “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. He lived in a world where he was taught to be the violence fearing, and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. But, when one of his mother’s students gave him a Marvel comic book, his fearfulness was transformed into inspiration. He found a way to escape these discouraging feelings through the “stifled rage and desire for power” (Jones 285) that he had newly found. The popular comic book hero “The Hulk” freed him from his passive and lonely persona. Throughout the article he cites his testimonies and the testimonies of others as examples; and shows how they used violence as a positive realm for “overcoming powerlessness.” (Jones 287)
The article of Gerard Jones, “Violent Media is Good for Kids” he tries to convince the audience, especially parents, that violent media is good for kids. He explains that violent media can be very beneficial to kids instead of harming them. Gerard Jones uses many literary devices to persuade the audience. He uses his own childhood experiences; he shares how he was, able to overcome his challenges or as Jones states in his article overcome “passivity and loneliness”. He also uses his son to continue to persuade the audience. He shares how his son used superhero’s identities to get through challenges he faced during preschool, kindergarten and first grade years. Other examples he uses is two different girls that also overcame childhood obstacle
In the writing of Gerard Jones “Violent Media is Good for Kids” is very interesting essay in which he describes how violent media can help kids to overcome obstacles, but whether it is convincing or not, I am not truly sure because the way the essay is written is biased. Jones as writer is making this controversial topic to gain more audience to read his writings, in addition, this essay fails in detail, it needs more statistics to support the examples that Jones addresses in his essay. Also, we need more information about what is the opinion of parents of these kids that believed violet media is good so, we need the statistics of the studies of the psychologist that support the idea of good
In our class book Practical Argument, I chose “Violent Media is Good for Kids” by Gerard Joneson page 36. In this article Jones states and tries to prove that violent media is undeniably good for children. He challenges this by saying what he believes also how he grew up too passive because he was sheltered from the media. Upon hearing that the media has "lofty messages of pacifism and tolerance" (par.2), his mother had borrowed some comics for him to read. After reading the comics, he said that he followed Hulk for a while then switched to "more sophisticated heroes", in (par. 3) and "finally found my own lead along a twisting path to a career and an identity." (par. 3) Later on, his son
From infancy onward, parents and teachers have drilled into the young generation that violence should be avoided at all costs. They have preached cooperation, tolerance, and “using one’s words” as tactics to combat difficult situations. Although those lessons are valid, Gerald Jones claims there is an alternative way. In his essay, “Violent Media is Good for Kids,” Jones argues that “creative violence- bonking cartoons, bloody videogames, toy guns-gives children a tool to master their rage” (Jones). In other words, media violence, used correctly, can serve as an alternative method for powering through adolescence. By reading and writing violent stories, children are able to express
Video games are prevalent among impressionable children and teenagers. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the violent themes used in video games. Teenage shootings in schools have led society to question the relationship between video violence and criminal activity. After considerable research, expert opinions, and research findings, the American Psychological Association found that there is no link between gaming and criminal behavior (Casey). With this, the pursuit of video violent games continues to grow in our society. With games that show execution style murders, blood oozing from gunshot wounds, and victims moaning from wounds, it certainly is gratifying for the indulgent player. The ongoing concern about aggression and violence has once again been proven to be non-existent (Alert). My thoughts are that this cartoon like violence is appeals to the need for violence in an artificially designed environment. In this manner, violence is contained within the boundaries of fantasy. This is unlike “The Crucible” which occurs in with real people, events, and situations. Thus, directing violence in the realm of societal dysfunction that has endured with
Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?
In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.
Good Morning, everyone, i'm going to start off with a poll of who all plays video games in this class. A lot of you/ maybe not too many in this class play video games and/but, as of 2015, 42% of Americans played video games at least 3 hours a week, which is roughly 135 million of the total population. This proves that video games play a large role in our society. Today I’m going to be speaking about the psychological effects that video games have on youth, but in order to do that, I need to inform you of the evolution of violent video games, the effects of violent video games, and the positive effects of video games.
The children of today are surrounded by technology and entertainment that is full of violence. It is estimated that the average child watches from three to five hours of television a day! Listening to music is also a time consuming pastime among children. With all of that exposure, one might pose the question, "How can seeing so much violence on television and video games and hearing about violence in in music affect a child's behavior?" Obviously these media have a big influence on childrens' behavior: we can see it in the way they attempt to emulate their favorite rock stars by dressing in a similar style and the way children play games, imitating their favorite cartoon personalities or super
Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.
“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are