Mariana Vasquez

March 16, 2015

ENG 120. SECT. 066
The Youth is our Future

With knowledge, children can become prestigious scientists, or skilled architects

and be capable of creating cures for deadly diseases, or designing sixty story buildings.
But, in recent years their high prevalence has significantly increased and it is a big issue
that is causing much controversy. Questions like How does the media affect children?
are always asked and the answer is clearly yes, the media does affect children. That is
why adults must understand the pros and cons and limit all electronic and video game use
to thirty minutes a day on all children of ages 3-11 for the better of our children. This
solution will make great differences in the health, learning and daily lives of children.
In recent psychological studies, it has been proven that the use of electronics, and
video games produce negative effects on our children. The violent, sexual and drug
content that exists within these medias is impairing their cognition and preventing them
from making reasonable judgments and instead are being motivated by inner forces of
which they have no control over. Following, the results of these medias can then lead to
addictions by which diseases such as ADHD can develop from, as well as behavioral
changes like depression, anxiety, or aggression, and or suffering from suicidal thoughts
and imitating actions that they are exposed to.
Now, it can be concluded that the advancement and use of technology is
something that is interfering with the development of the human brain.

The analogy of childrens brains being like sponges is a great way to describe
the capacities of their brains. It absorbs knowledge easily and efficiently. Their brain
experiences three stages of cognitive development within the first eleven years of their
life and acquire astonishing skills throughout each (Santrock, 43). The first stage is the
sensorimotor stage in which is the infancy period that begins at birth and ends at age two.
Throughout this stage, the infants depend much on the help of adults in order to get
around, but already their brains are gaining the ability to coordinate sensations and
physical actions, to think with symbols, and to imitate and learn from others (Santrock,
17). So, being noticed, children at the age of two years or younger are already learning to
imitate what is happening around them and therefore helps us understand how fast they
can learn. The second stage is the preoperational stage, which is the early childhood
period of a childs life (Santrock, 17). This stage nearly begins at the age of three years
old and lasts until the age of six, and within this stage children learn how to make
decisions and care for themselves. Children are able to identify the world [using] words
and images (Santrock, 17). This is the most crucial stage in their brain development
because the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for reasoning and self-regulation
extensively develops [] and plays an important role in attention(Santrock, 147).
Meaning that the thickness of the brain increases and the more information that can be
learned by a child, and due to the attention that is devoted to things the easier it is for a
child to imitate certain behaviors.
Now, the third stage is the concrete operational stage beginning at the age of
seven and lasting until the age of 11 years old. During this stage, John Sandtrock states
that children are then able to reason logically about concrete events. Children learn to

read, write, and arithmetic. Taking all these stages into consideration, it is why children
must be limited to the use of electronics, and video games. Technology interferes with the
stages of development and influences children to experience behavioral changes.
Today, in average, children are using electronics or video games for at least seven
hours a day ( Granic, 729). Children are spending a high amount of time in front of
electronic, video game, and television screens and it is taking away their attention and
time from engaging in achievement-related tasks, such as homework,[and] reading
(Sandtrock, 579). It causes them to not fully develop like they should in the appropriate
cognitive stages. They tend to become slow learners and therefore is why it has been
concluded that children score low on achievement test ( Sandtrock, 577). Children are
devoting more attention and time to the games, social networks, and shows they are into
rather than devoting more time to academics. They are then more prevalent on learning
what they are exposed to on the media, and are being permitted to do so since adults are
not teaching them right from wrong. Santrock emphasizes the argument of [mediums
like videogames] and television training children how to become passive learners. This
Meansing, that children only learn what they hear or see rather than learning how to
critically analyze situations.
Now, due to children becoming passive learners it is why they are also being
deceived by the medias. Children are taught to have unrealistic views of the world
(Santrock, 577), and because of this are shown that everything will be alright at the end.
Which This impairs their judgment and influences them to have bad behaviors expecting
no punishment and because of the unrealistic views they produce they develop the
characteristic of aggression (Feldman, 204). Now, the question is, why does televised

violence lead to aggression in children, and adolescents? Well, its simple. The
consumption of violence creates inner emotions of anger and stores them until they are
released. Violence triggers certain emotions in the amygdala of the brain, which releases
a stimulus that leads to a catharsis (Feldman, 625). As children play video games that
showcase content of violence they are engaging intensely and [the] altered state of
consciousness in which rational thought is suspended and highly arousing scripts are
increasingly likely to be learned (Sandtrock, 578). Aside from video gaming, watching
sexual content can also cause children [to experience uncommon] sexual attitude and
behaviors (Sandtrock, 579) and therefore also lead to the development of aggression.
Children are given inaccurate information through unreliable sources and can influence
them to make unreasonable decisions because they believe if its on television or other
medias then it is right.
According to the psychological study that was conducted by Susan Baer, Kelly
Saran, Davis A. Green, and Irene Hong, aggression and academic deficits are not the only
psychiatric disorders that exist. Disorders like depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts
develop from the immense addiction of internet and video game use. Children become
unaware of their unconsciousness and develop more major disorders such as ADHD. Due
to the emotional, and behavioral changes that a child encounters while using the internet
or playing video games anxiety comes to be a result. Researchers suggest that anxiety
disorders are the learned response of stress and develop from the inappropriate and
inaccurate thoughts of belief [] (Feldman, 534). Which then again introduces the idea
of the deceiving media that children are being exposed to. But aside from that, the study
shows how that there are psychiatric clinics around the world for youth with addictions

for electronic media use. Within those clinics exist children who suffer of ADHD due to
their high prevalence on the media. It is a disorder that has been proven to result from
dysfunctions in the nervous system and those children who are diagnosed with it usually
tend to have a difficult time adjusting to different environments. But now, after knowing
the cons of children being highly prevalent on the media there are also a few questionable
pros for children using them.
Many will argue that the use of electronics and video games has either no effect,
or positive effect on children of ages 3-11 due to some studies proving this statement. It
has been mentioned in a study that video gaming in fact has cognitive, motivational,
emotional, and social benefits. Also, it has been stated that the internet media is
educationally beneficial due to it providing more up-to-date information than books.
Cognitive benefits that are provided by internet and video game use are
[attaining] faster and more accurate attention allocation, higher spatial resolution in
visual processing and enhanced mental rotation abilities (Granic et al, 68). All being
measurements of enhanced processing and efficiency. Motivational benefits being the
feedback that players receive throughout the game in which serves to reward their efforts,
encouraging them to continue playing in order to accomplish success (Granic et al, 69).
Another motivational benefit is being motivated to learn from ones failure. Now as to
emotional benefits the feelings of [having] intense pride after succeeding against great
adversity (Granic et al, 71) serves as the positive effect gaming has. Lastly, the
advantages that gaming elicits on social development is the interpersonal skills that
players acquire throughout the game. Players result with helpful behaviors like
effectively cooperating, and supporting one another. It has been claimed by Isabela

Granic and her peers, that violent video games tend to lead into more helpful behaviors
than non-violent games. But in other hand, educational benefits seem to also exist. It is
argued that the information thats on the internet is now more up-to-date than the
information that exist in books. Which can help children gain current knowledge.
Now, due to these benefits that are discussed of the use of internet and video
games it can be supported that its use can be beneficial rather than desensitizing. But, the
question is what is the limit? After how many hours do these benefits become negative
advantages? The reality is that all of those benefits can be questioned when the use of
electronics are video games become prevalent like they are today. For example, in terms
of motivational, and emotional what would be the result of a child losing with much
frequency? Would the child still take the feedback with much pride and be eager to keep
trying, or would it more likely result with frustration and anger? I believe frustration, and
anger because children are huge competitors who dont like the feeling of losing.
After discussing the possible pros of the use of electronics and video gaming I can
conclude that the cons are much more severe and that the pros can easily become into the
cons. So, as adults we must make the effort to show our children how to become less
prevalent in the media. Permit them to learn actively rather than passively in order to help
them develop into more educated beings. Persuade them be analyze real life situation
more thoroughly and make right decisions. We need to encourage them to become
prestigious scientists or architects, and by this it is critical to limit their use of electronics
and video games to at least thirty minutes a day.

Content
Area

Description of An Exemplary Position Paper

Points

Argument

The introduction presents an overview of different stances on

34__/3
the issue, demonstrating an understanding of these views and
5
contains a main claim statement. The writers main claim is
clearly defined and the writer refers back to this claim
throughout the paper. The writer presents an opposing
viewpoint (acknowledges a counter argument) and successfully
argues against that view. The writer uses at least two scholarly
articles or book chapters with opposing viewpoints to situate
his or her own argument. The writer has a clear understanding
of these articles and uses the research to enhance the writers
own argument.

Analysis

The writer uses secondary sources (articles or book chapters) in _22_/2

their paper to create an effective dialogue with the opinions of 5
other writers. The writers critical thinking skills enhance their
analysis helping the writer to present his or her own stance on
the issue as an extension of another writers argument or as a
synthesis of two opposing arguments.

Organization The paper is organized in a logical manner that enhances the

_14_/1
flow of the writers argument. The writer has included an
5
introduction and forward thinking conclusion. Body paragraphs
have topic/point sentences that show the reader the paragraphs
relationship to the argument and concluding sentences. The
writer has used transitions between ideas and paragraphs to add
to his/her ideas clarity.
Presentation
& Format

The report is free of

distracting errors of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The
report meets the page length requirement. The writer has used
Times/Times New Roman 12 point font; the document in
double spaced, and uses 1 inch margins.

_10_/1
0

Style

The writer uses an economic style meaning that the language is __5/5
concise, not repetitive or overly wordy. Sentence structure and
meaning is clear.

Cover Letter

The writer has supplied a cover letter that discusses the

__8/10
rhetorical situation for their document (3 points), overview of
strengths/weaknesses (2 points), a request for specific feedback
(1 point), and a reflection on the required SLOs (4 points).

Total:94 /
100

Plus 1 for peer review