Against Headphones

                 For numerous decades now, headphones have become a standard accessory for American teenagers. Whether in the north, south, east, or west, it is customary to see kids walking around with their ears plugged, oblivious to the world around them.Virginia Heffernan, a writer for the New York Times, wrote an article dictating the history of headphones. In addition, by providing her audience with a plethora of numerical exemplification partnered with a cause and effect arrangement, Heffernan persuades parents of teenagers to limit their children’s headphone use because of the detrimental consequences they will suffer.  

            Through out her article, Heffernan supports her claim by providing statistical evidence to aid in the development of her logical argument. For example, she starts her article, “One in five teenagers in America can’t hear rustles or whispers”. Although a rather odd statistic, Heffernan uses the numbers to lead into her argument and support her claim. She later continues stating, “The number of teenagers with hearing loss — from slight to severe — has jumped 33 percent since 1994”. As seen, Heffernan uses various statistics to illustrate to her audience how the consequences she is talking about are not made up in the least bit. Heffernan then transitions into a cause and effect arrangement where she rattles off several consequences of constant earphone usage. Heffernan describes how headphones create a, “private auditory experiences” which is making children extremely anti-social. Overall, both the cause and effect arrangement and exemplification shows Heffernan’s audience the logical side of her argument and forces the parents to actually listen to what she is saying.

To conclude, I do believe Heffernan’s rhetoric succeeded in showing parents the dangers of extensive headphones use. Both her exemplification and cause and effect arrangement helped Heffernan support her claim making it not just a statement, but an argument.