Discursive Essay: The Dark Sides of Cartoons
Academic Reading and Writing I
Discursive Essay
“The Dark Sides of Cartoons”
In the early 21st century children become more and more abused by cartoons. Even parents themselves encourage their offspring to watch animated films. Commonly, we consider cartoons as sources of entertainment for our children to relax and have fun. However, we must ask ourselves are cartoons as innocent as we tend to think? This paper investigates the dark sides of cartoons, the sides which have a negative impact on children’s brains, while parents in most cases are unaware of this acute problem.
To begin with, both current and future parents would be surprised by the information that most research concentrates on the significant question of whether watching violent cartoons makes children and teenagers become more furious. According to Joanne Cantor, professor of the University of Wisconsin, there are dozens of psychological researches showing that learning often happens through imitation, and experts know that children imitate words and actions they watch on television from the very young age (http://yourmindonmedia.com/wpcontent/uploads/media_violence_paper.pdf).
According to Choma, et. al., (2004), the risk of self-injury among children increases by nearly 34% for every hour of violent cartoons viewed per day (http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom/faculty/ha/tcom103fall2004/gp9/). To illustrate, think of the violence on “Tom & Jerry”, one of the most celebrated cartoons of all time. Parents understand that this masterpiece of animated film is far from educational. In fact, it injects violence to children’s fragile grey matter. Just think: Tom the cat tries to outfox Jerry the mouse, and in most cases Tom flattens, shatters, loses parts of his body etc. At a young age, this erroneous reality harmfully affects children, as they are more likely to have mental and emotional problems after watching alike cartoons which increase the risk of physical
Discursive Essay
“The Dark Sides of Cartoons”
In the early 21st century children become more and more abused by cartoons. Even parents themselves encourage their offspring to watch animated films. Commonly, we consider cartoons as sources of entertainment for our children to relax and have fun. However, we must ask ourselves are cartoons as innocent as we tend to think? This paper investigates the dark sides of cartoons, the sides which have a negative impact on children’s brains, while parents in most cases are unaware of this acute problem.
To begin with, both current and future parents would be surprised by the information that most research concentrates on the significant question of whether watching violent cartoons makes children and teenagers become more furious. According to Joanne Cantor, professor of the University of Wisconsin, there are dozens of psychological researches showing that learning often happens through imitation, and experts know that children imitate words and actions they watch on television from the very young age (http://yourmindonmedia.com/wpcontent/uploads/media_violence_paper.pdf).
According to Choma, et. al., (2004), the risk of self-injury among children increases by nearly 34% for every hour of violent cartoons viewed per day (http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom/faculty/ha/tcom103fall2004/gp9/). To illustrate, think of the violence on “Tom & Jerry”, one of the most celebrated cartoons of all time. Parents understand that this masterpiece of animated film is far from educational. In fact, it injects violence to children’s fragile grey matter. Just think: Tom the cat tries to outfox Jerry the mouse, and in most cases Tom flattens, shatters, loses parts of his body etc. At a young age, this erroneous reality harmfully affects children, as they are more likely to have mental and emotional problems after watching alike cartoons which increase the risk of physical
References: Anonymous (January 2008) Experts warn of more TV-linked seizures. Retrieved on November 16 from: Bjorkqvist, K., Lagerspetz K. (April 1983) Children’s experience of three types of cartoon at two age levels. International Journal of Psychology 20 (1985) 77-93. Retrieved on November 11 from: Cantor, J Dalvi, V. (November 2011) Inspired by cartoon, teen commits suicide. Retrieved on November 10 from: Gladwell, M. (2005) Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. Retrieved from: Kirsh, S.J. (2006) Cartoon violence and aggression in youth. Aggression and violent behavior, vol Klimov, B., (May 2003) There! Did you see it?; Care! They do see you...Munich Personal RePEc Archive Lewis, O. (January/February 1988) The culture of poverty. Society, Volume 35, Issue 2, pp 7-9 Laurel, D. (March 2010) The many benefits of using cartoons in training programs. Retrieved on November 25 from: Ridouani, D. (2011) The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in western media. Journal Ruta (No 3) Retrieved on November 12 from: Surette, T. (March 2008) Boy dies after friends imitate Naruto. Retrieved on November 11 from: Timoshik, A. (2007) Children commit suicide to attract adults ' attention. Retrieved on November 29 from: Webb, S. (November 2012) Russian teen leaps from apartment block after seeing his favorite Japanese cartoon character die on television. Retrieved on November 12 from: