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Critical Analysis Essay (Final Draft)

Sumit Kumar

Department of English and Communication, George Brown College

COMM 1007: College English

Professor Greg Osadec

February 23, 2021

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Gaming has been a popular pastime both adored and loathed within our society for

nearly eight decades, beginning around the 1940s. A wide variety of these games harbor the

ability to heighten skills such as manual dexterity and decision-making otherwise attained

through real-world situations. Thus, video games have become an intrinsic part of youngster’s

life and in today’s adverse scenario of the pandemic, they have become more vital by

promoting socialization among teenagers in tough situations of lockdown. In the article

“Children’s Screen Time Has Soared in the Pandemic, Alarming Parents and Researchers”

Richtel (2021) depicted the concern of parents on kids spending more time on electronic

devices and provided shreds of research by researchers determining the alarming

consequences of playing games in teenagers while the article “Video games deserve better

than blanket, parachute coverage from reporters who don’t get it”, Park (2021) has

presented an opposite view and feels there is nothing wrong with kids playing games instead

demonstrated the significance of playing games. Park’s (2021) article is more convincing

than Richtel’s (2021) article because Richtel (2020) could not explain some details with

proper evidence and has used inappropriate researches.

The first reason Richtel’s (2021) article is ineffective is his manipulative use of ethos

which is evident by the researches in the reading that could not justify the argument

completely. Park (2020) has stated, “So, imagine sending a health reporter to cover the
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impact of listening to certain rap lyrics over and over again, all while not understanding the

context of the lyrics, where they come from, or what they’re saying” to justify Richtel’s use of

inapt researches. For instance, Dr.Dimitri Christakis has mentioned “gift” as electronic

devices given by parents to kids in the pandemic and alerts parents to face the

consequences where he identified increased online use and addiction to devices in children

can lead to anxiety, depression, obesity, and aggression (Richtel, 2021, par.13). In his claim,

Christakis rather than mentioning video games mentioned online usage and addiction of

devices as causes that divert the arguments imposed by Richtel on video games. Also, Park

(2021) stated that Christakis has a long record of raising flags about violence in video games

which he mentioned by providing a 2016 research conducted by him and then mentioned

that the issue of video game violence on human aggression is rare by providing a 2020

study by the July meta-study published in the Royal Society Open Science (Park, 2021,

para. 7-8). In another instance to contradict Richtel’s (2021) quote on Dr.Dimitri Christakis's

claim, Park (2020) mentioned Richtel used anxiety and depression study using links to the

Times research which mentions social media as the culprit, not video games (Park, 2021,

para. 12) and this notion also contradicts Richtel’s (2021) claim on doing a deep study for

the article. Therefore, Park’s (2021) claim on Richtel’s (2021) quote successfully elucidates

to the reader about incomplete arguments imposed by Richtel. Hence, Richtel’s (2021)

manipulative use of ethos makes the article untrustworthy for the readers.

Probing further, the second reason Richtel’s (2021) article is ineffective is his

unscrupulous use of logos which is evident by the usage of weak logic with incomplete

details and improper pieces of evidence provided in Richtel’s (2021) article. For example,

Richtel’s (2021) article has mentioned several instances focusing on the Reichert family and

their concerns about their son playing Xbox and using his phone. Mr. Reichert mentioned the

“tipping point” when his son decided to make electronic devices his whole life (Richtel, 2021,

par.13). This illustrates the fact of his son being addicted to electronic devices for which he

spent around 40 hours weekly on gadgets but did not illustrate the fact of video games
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being responsible for increased screen time properly. Another instance, when Park (2021)

stated, “But the framing of the piece is flawed and embarrassing, using a Colorado parent’s

worry over their child’s Xbox usage as its case in point. This framing conflates digital screen

time to video games, which are two different things” (Park, 2021, para. 3) also justifies

Richtel’s misunderstanding between usage of electronic devices and video games for

spending more time on screen. Furthermore, Richtel (2020) has mentioned the usage of

“Roblox”, a game popular among children ages 9 to 12 in the United States, that proliferated

to 82% in the first nine months of 2020 (Richtel, 2021, par.9) but did not justify the reason for

this considerable surge while, Park (2021) justified the reason for this significant increment

by mentioning this game as a creative platform in which users can create games or

participate in them (Park, 2021, para. 5) and a good source of socialization in the pandemic.

Hence, the following instances successfully justify Richtel’s incomplete facts with improper

evidence making his logic weak. Thus, Richtel’s (2021) manipulative use of logos make the

article inappropriate for the readers.

The third reason Richtel’s (2021) article is ineffective is his devious use of pathos in

the photographs that convoyed the article, for which the themes postured. For example, the

first photograph displayed Reichert parents with their teenage son, James, who they claimed

being adversely affected by the usage of electronic devices for long hours, who once spent

his leisure time playing basketball and mountain biking (Richtel, 2021, paras. 1-3). According

to James's parents, they feel like they are losing their son (Richtel, 2021, para.3), which is

evident by the lack of eye-contact among them, and James shown as completely immersed

in the video game while using the headset and controller. His central position in the image

highlights the adverse impact of his behavior on his family, but a closer look divulges that he

was looking directly into the camera lens, which certainly means he was not actually doing

this deliberately rather, he was instructed to adopt a posture that conveyed the message of

Richtel (2021) and his photographer. The third photograph displayed Dr. Briasouli’s family

constituting six members sitting together on a small sofa where everyone looks happy and
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nothing suspicious activity was found involving any electronic device despite the fact that

children had had an iPad Pro, two iPad minis, and a Nintendo Switch, that contributed 70

percent of their weekly usage. (Richtel, 2021, paras. 16-18). Richtel’s (2021) manipulation of

pathos makes the article untrustworthy for the readers.

To conclude, video games play a vital role in developing children’s critical as well as

creative thinking, and in today’s pandemic situation their role in imparting socialization and

education has made them more significant. Lack of complete information with proper

analysis of shreds of research provided by Richtel (2021) makes his article ineffective as

compared to Park’s (2021) article. Thus, parents should encourage their kids to play video

games that imparts profound knowledge rather than showing complete ignorance.
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References:

Richtel, M. (2021, Jan 16). Children’s Screen Time Has Soared in the Pandemic, Alarming

Parents and Researchers. Retrieved from The New York Times,

https://login.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=fth&AN=148170566&site=eds-live&scope=site

Park, G. (2021, Jan 27). Video games deserve better than blanket, parachute coverage from

reporters who don’t get it. Retrieved from The Washington Post,

https://login.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgsc&AN=edsgcl.649801792&site=eds-live&scope=site
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