My Response to “Growing Up Controlled” by William Kowinski

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*Growing Up  Controlled is an article from his book “The Malling of America“.

Kowinski characterize teenager’s experience in the United States today as artificially simulated by the corporate mall environments. The critical issue that the author Kowinski is addressing in his article is “To the teenagers, how influential are their experiences in the mall? Are they good or bad?” The most significant point the author is making in this article is teenagers today spend too much time in their local malls – more time than in any other after-school or recreational activities. With that said Kowinski further points out because teenagers spend so much time in the malls, their experiences and values are substantially if not entirely shaped by corporate malls’ idealism. To reinforce his largely negative tone toward the effects of malls’ presence in teenagers’ lives, in this article Kowinski included some except of his conversation with writer Karen Lansky. Lansky agreed with Kowinski’s point of view by stating the structuralized malls encourages obedience and consumption in their next generation of shoppers. Lansky then stated in order for the malls to achieve those goals, they are actively providing teenagers the all-in-one comforts to make them feel like home – with entertainments unlike anywhere else, “homemade” food like at home and huge space like the outdoors.

My take on the critical issue Kowinski addresses in “Growing Up Controlled” is there are some positives but more negatives to malls’ effect on a teenager’s life experiences. One of the few positives of malls’ presence in a teenager’s life is many will get their first job and gain tremendous hands-on cooperative working experiences. In contrast one of the many bad influences is the mall managements are actively perfecting their teenager-retention methods by giving teens an illusion of home and fun, which in many cases such methods have successfully drove teenagers out of the parks, recreational areas, gyms and their home’s backyard.  In my point of view the bad influences from the malls completely overshadowed the good experiences a teenager will get while in the malls.

I think the teenagers described in Kowinski’s article “Growing Up Controlled” are like “commercialized puppets” twisted by corporate malls’ consumerism values. In order to understand what I meant by “commercialized puppets” we have to begin by looking into the reason why developers spent so many resources into building their beautiful malls.  The first premise of my argument is all the malls want to sustain and expand their businesses. Given the malls have the same goals as other commercialized entities in America, so in one way they all want to promote their facilities, products or services. On TV or other media outlets the obvious objective of every advertisement is to inform audience about a specific company’s products and services. But many hidden elements from all advertisement campaigns also profoundly touch our memories and experiences. To demonstrate what the hidden elements are I would like to ask a question “What does a bitten apple reminds you of?” To most Americans that answer would be the Apple.inc, a company that makes personal computers named Mac (short for Macintosh) other than growing apples. The repetitive advertisement campaigns from Apple.inc took away the people’s natural perception of what a “bad apple” would look like in to a multi-billion dollar cooperate logo that every Mac-lover adores.

That same repetitive advertising principle also applies to the malls only their advertisements are even more outreaching. With teenager’s constant presence in the malls, malls provide them with homemade meals and comfy sofas simulating an ideal home. The developers also put bunch of plants and engineered beautiful open rooftops simulating outdoor spaces. All of these efforts developers put into building an artificial home and outdoor environments is all because they want their consumers to feel like home, and in turn attach consumer’s home feelings to mass consumptions. One can argue “So why branding home and outdoor environments with consumptions are bad?” My take on that argument is while the malls’ practice of branding and associations would not change teenagers in a significant way because that’s how society operates today, I still think teenagers can get much more from the uncertain outside world’s stimulation than the mere simulations of those natural elements in the structural malls. Compare to the ever changing world, the malls are just steel-reinforced concrete buildings. As Kowinski pointed out in his article at the second paragraph many teenagers are spending so much time in malls that they literally experienced all their important moments in the mall. And I agree with Kowinski that one of the primary reasons why those teenagers do not experience enough of the uncertain world is because their parents encourage the kids to go to the mall more than to anywhere else.

In conclusion, my point of view of kids in the malls is essentially the same as Kowinski’s. Rather than just experience most of our teenage lives in the malls, there are much more ways to experience one particular thing and the kids should have more of a choice. The malls are in fact a safe place for kids to hang out, and I can’t blame the malls for trying to do business like any other commercialized entities we have here in America. But the parents should know the mall is also a poisonous place for children to learn their core values and about the world. After the parents realize putting kids in the mall is not much better than just leaving the kids at home watching commercials on TV, parents should consider other safe and productive alternatives for kids to experience their teenage lives; such alternatives can be joining a team sport, playing in a band, going on hiking fieldtrips, picnicking at parks or participating in endless other recreational activities after school.

About the author William Kowinski:

William Kowinski writes for newspapers and magazines in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. The passage “Growing Up Controlled” is adapted from his 1985 book The Malling of America: And Inside Look at the Great Consumer Paradise.

If you are interested in reading what William Kowinski have to say about our generation, check out his book titled “The Malling of America ” at Amazon.

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