Rhetorical Reading Response: "Beautiful Teenage Brains" by David Dobbs

Who knew? by Kai Thomas

Beautiful Teenage Brains, by David Dobbs (2011), claims that adolescents take more risks not because they think that they are immortal, but because they weigh risks and the probable rewards differently than adults. The author explains this phenomenon by introducing common stereotypes about teenagers, and describing an experiment where those stereotypes were put to a video-game type test and proved wrong; after that, he explains why this aspect of the teenage brain grants teenagers a better chance at success. His purpose is to inform educated people interested in scientific topics about a common stereotype surrounding teenage brains, in order to disapprove general stigmas about teenagers and highlight how their brain gives them an edge that can be used for success. His intended audience seems to be educated people interested in environmental and scientific topics that challenge or broaden their way of thinking.  

Image via Tabernacle Family

I’ve never felt supported from the adult community in my life. It seemed as if we were in a give and take mafia-style relationship, where I study to give good test scores and they allow me to live on melting ice. But, after reading this article, it made me realize how “buying into” the general norms of thinking can ruin your life. I was also one of those people who believed (slightly) that adults were superior to children- that somehow, I was lacking something in my brain that enabled me to be less than adults. And it was a never-ending circle. I realized that I will never be old enough to “surpass” adults, so I will forever be in a constant state of inferiority. It was what I was taught and what I internalized. However, this article states and supports that every human in whatever state in their growth has what it needs to succeed, and comparing the states of teenage risk-taking on the scale of adult risk-taking is what the inferior model is. Teenagers don’t take more risks because they are stupid or they think that they’re immortal or none of the other things you may be thinking that puts teenagers in a negative light (once again); they take certain risks because the reward will be slightly larger, and in fact, at this stage of their growth, they are supposed to. Learning how which risks provides which rewards and weighing those rewards against each other grants teenagers an edge to compete and succeed in our modern world. It is a way that teenagers learn about the world around them and prepare for the future. “Succeeding often requires moving out of the home and into less secure situations,” in this way, teenagers are doing exactly what’s needed to survive (Dobbs). I only hope that later the word “teenager” will have a more positive connotation than today.

Teenage CEO via MotherHood In Style Magazine

The organization of this essay is very strategic in that it focuses objectively on the topic at hand and doesn’t stray into other, non-connecting conversations. For example, the article gets straight to the claim by pointing out that teenagers use the “same basic cognitive strategies…that adults do” (Dobbs). The author doesn’t stray into a different counter-argument about how cognitive strategies differ from adults to adolescents (and so on and so forth), but instead shifts the train of thought back into other commonly mistaken identities about what teenagers may think. He connects a broader audience by staying away from specific scientific words that would describe those strategies into more commonly used words that more people could understand. By staying on topic, he gains the trust of the audience because the audience will know that his purpose is only to pass on information, not force your way of thinking. Invariably, though, because he remains unbiased and on topic, the audience will read his words freely and use them to question their own way of thinking. This is a great way of staying true to a controversial message without further heightening tensions.

Works Cited

Dobbs, David. “Teenage Brains.” Teenage Brains - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic, ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text.