Rhetorical Reading Response: “Beautiful Teenage Brains”

Image Source

Denzell Moss

Dr. Cantice Greene

English 1102

4 October 2017

In the essay entitled “Beautiful Teenage Brains” (2011), David Dodds explores the adolescent mind process and how it compares to the functionality of an adult’s, particularly explaining why teenagers tend to take more risks than adults. The author develops and supports this theme by utilizing multiple examples of behavior, explaining that teenagers take more risks than adults due to the reward outweighing the overall risk of punishment. Dodds’ purpose is to inform the readers that teenagers are considered daring risktakers simply because they weigh risk versus reward different in order to provide clarity to the audience that adolescents utilize the same cognitive processing as adults, but react to different situations dissimilarly. The author’s intended audience is most likely directed towards adults who believe that teenager’s brain cognitive functionality is inferior to theirs, when, in fact, are indeed equal.

Image Source

I found this essay to be informative and even enlightening. As a teenager myself, we are led to believe that our minds are not fully developed to comprehend myriad adult situations. Although this may be true in many elements of life—for example, wisdom and experience—it is reasonable to infer that teenagers have many responsibilities that easily correlate to an adult’s daily life. School, for example, may seem menial, but when you have to wake up early, attend multiple classes, read textbooks and complete homework after school, and work, it becomes very clear that a teenager’s everyday life is far from menial. Furthermore, I can understand how we tend to take more risks based on the risk versus reward system; perhaps that is the childish inner youth that is inspiring teenagers to continue expanding our boundaries to make the most out of life.

In the essay “Beautiful Teenage Brains”, David Dodds highlights the psychological differences of teenagers versus adults by providing multiple instances, which were emulated through a video game, where both parties would react differently. Explaining the concept of the game, Dodds states:

In the game, you try to drive across town [without running red lights] in as little time as possible…  As in real life, the traffic lights sometimes turn from green to yellow as you approach them, forcing a quick go-or-stop decision. You save time—and score more points—if you drive through before the light turns red. But if you try to drive through the red and don’t beat it, you lose even more time than you would have if you had stopped for it. Thus the game rewards you for taking a certain amount of risk but punishes you for taking too much. (Dodds)

Image Source

As Dodds notes, “[w]hen he brought a teen’s friends into the room to watch, the teen would take twice as many risks, trying to gun it through lights he’d stopped for before. The adults, meanwhile, drove no differently with a friend watching”. In this case, the teenager outweighed the risk by the influence of his friend’s presence, while the adult did not change his behavior upon his friend watching him play. The payoff was the same, yet both parties acted differently because “teens actually overestimate risk” in comparison to adult’s more conventional psychological behavior. Although the consequence of taking risks on much larger scales leads to more rigorous consequences, Dodds states that, “the willingness to take risks during this period of life has granted an adaptive edge”, which is what separates the daring adolescents and the functionalist adults. Ultimately, that same willingness is what inspires innovation and transformation in our modern society. As they say, children are the future.

Works Cited:

David Dodds. “Beautiful Teenage Brains” by David Dodds from National Geographic, October 2011. Copyright © 2011 by National Geographic Creative. Reprinted by permission of National Geographic Creative.