Kids in the Mall: Growing Up Controlled
Malls becoming the new baby-sitters
William Kowinski has written the article “Kids in the mall: Growing up controlled”, to highlight the ignorance of parents that exposes children to artificial environment of shopping malls. Kowinski argues that this exposure converts children into “pre-programmed consumers” and leads them to a premature adulthood, which affects their emotional development. To prove his argument, the writer relies upon several studies which reveal the importance of the role parents play in nurturing their children with “warmth” and “old-fashioned mothering”. Furthermore, Kowinski defines the mall as a “high school without the impertinence of classes” where children can learn some skills by doing odd jobs. However these jobs might not be helpful in the future since they do not teach them anything new. By adopting a casual tone and specific choice of words, Kowinski succeeds in discussing his arguments and giving his point of view.
The youth can be easily taken in with a special place where it has experienced some memorable incidents, good or bad. According to Kowinski, for the young people, that place will most likely be a mall that “they have been probably visiting all their lives”. Kowinski uses a casual tone to illustrate serious, yet the most common activities carried out at malls such as “smoking cigarettes or joints”. His casual tone creates common ground, which makes it easier for the reader to relate to such activities. In any case, the mall is quite a common experience for most Americans and hence, as kids they have already been exposed to the “large-scale artificial environment” where they develop their attitudes and capability to adapt. This “large-scale artificial environment” has been further simplified by Kowinski as an environment that has made children conscious about their