Life shapes people’s lives in different ways. Nowadays, children have access to different entertainment media, most of them which are violent. Violent media has an impact on children’s minds, and their growth patterns. Gerard Jones, author of “Violent Media is Good for Kids”, argues that violent media can really have a positive impact on children. He uses many examples from his childhood, he tells of himself as a child, and his son to support his opinion. According to his article, children have to have unlimited access to violent media, it should be unrestricted. (I NEED A GOOD THESIS COULD YOU HELP ME PLEASE).
Jones’s thesis in his article is the media violence doesn’t necessarily harmful to children, rather it is helpful. Jones uses many arguments to support his thesis. One of his argument is his personal experience. He lived in a family where he was taught that he needs to be afraid of violence and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. One day his mother’s borrowed a book from her friend and gave it to Jones. It was a Marvel comic book. After reading this book his fear was transformed into inspiration. After reading the comic, he said that he followed Hulk for a while then switched to “more sophisticated heroes and finally my own lead along a twisting path to a career and an identity.” (par 4). From a cowardly boy, he turned to a courageous man that could handle any difficult situation.
For all that I know he may be correct in his statements. I can say this from my experience. My son’s favorite cartoon character is Hulk as well. When I talk to him about this character he says that Hulk is incredibly fast and can run at the great distance at extreme speeds. Even when the Hulk gets damaged he heals quickly. Hulk is fearless. My son is telling me that he wants to be like a Hulk. He wants to be fearless and strong as a hulk.
Gerard Jones is also saying that violent media is also helpful for young people, writing about his son. “I have watched my son living the same story, transforming into Bloodthirsty dinosaur to embolden himself for the plunge into preschool” (par 5). He also is writing that he read Tarzan to his son to help him get over his fear of climbing tree. This is a good example to explain to your son to get rid of fear to climb on the tree. Kids get lost in the story of a hero, and the action keeps it entertaining.
We could see that Jones argues that superhero stories help kids identify the conflict between inner self and the public self that they learn in the early stages of socialization. Before reading this article I thought that media violence has just negative impacts on children. But after reading this article and from a conversation with my son, I could say that I was wrong. I am accepting that books about superheroes could have a positive impact on kids, but computer games definitely not. Many computer games contain some violent content; it has been hypnotized that gamers tend to be more aggressive. I can give an example of my nephew. Two months ago my brother bought him a computer game. When he is playing games like shooting or fighting he becomes aggressive, especially when he loses the game. Computer games make kids aggressive.
Also, horror movies I could say the mother of violent media, heighten anxiety among teenagers who watch them. Jones’s personal experiences can also be considered as appealing to sadness, or emotions. In the story of a little girl, Jones wants his audience to feel sympathy for the girl because of her background. The little girl started becoming involved in a violent media “her parents were separating, and she was small, an only child, a li at an age when her classmates were dividing sharply along gender lines.” (par 11). Her parents may have been more focused on their separation and she was alone, so the little girls looked up to Sailor Moon and began acting like the character. We could see that little girl has grown to become more self-controlled and socially because she showed her violent fantasies through her art, we can feel proudness and happiness for the girl’s development. Jones didn’t use any statistic or didn’t make research to prove that violent media benefits kids. Also, logos would help in his argument, if the author would found and compare information about positive and negative outcomes of exposing violent media on children.
Also,we can see that Jones brings up the idea that violence can cause children to act violently and then participate in school shootings. Then, the author wrote about Melanie More, by explaining that violent media is necessary for children to use their need for power and feeling of anger. Melanie More wrote, “Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the incapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, moreresilient selfhood.” (par 7). We didn’t get enough information that proves that Moore and Jones’s research findings are accurate or not. Also, he doesn’t explain what the negative effects are in violent media.
Jones’s examples are showing that violent media can positively affect the growth of children. However, his argument is not effective, because Jones only wrote about his experiences in his life which creates bias. Marvel comics cannot be the only form of violent media. There are many others, which have a very bad impact on children. The article “Violence Media for Kids” is a heap of confusing information which uses the author’s personal experience or view.
