Introducing the Naysayer

By putting the naysayer within your text it strengthens the essay as a whole by using your potential weaknesses as your strengths. This makes your argument stronger as a whole as you introduce an opposing point of view. In my work I use both perspectives to my benefit the essay as a whole. As the two sides work against each other they are also working together to reach the common goal to convey to the reader how the constant connection to information can both benefit and hurt a young mind.

In this paragraph from my essay, I used the perspectives of how ADHD and ADD both benefit and hurt a young mind:

Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADD and ADHD for short, can both benefit a young individual’s mind and be detrimental to it. With the presence of the conditions of ADD and ADHD, these both contribute to strengthening young minds as these mental conditions promote frequent distraction and the inability to remain concentrated for long periods of time. For example, Anderson mentioned how the individual benefits within the working environment as culture has “forced us into a kind of elective ADHD”(Anderson 5). This ‘elective form’ of ADHD strengthens the growing individual’s mind as they are learning to perform in a manner that benefits them the most, especially within a working environment. Ultimately every individual is working towards success and that often correlates to being successful within whatever job they currently obtain or are striving to achieve. The ability to thrive in working environments with this ‘elective form’ could put them ahead of other candidates, and could benefit them by getting them the job over another individual that does not share these ADHD qualities within the working environment. On the contrary, this ADD and ADHD also weakens the individual’s mindset as ADD/ADHD creates individuals that do not have the mental patience for the time to complete their thoughts, or listen to others convey theirs to them. As Restak mentioned in his essay Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era, “You must learn to rapidly process information, function amidst surroundings your parents would have described as “chaotic,” always remain prepared to rapidly shift from one activity to another, and redirect your attention among competing tasks without becoming bogged down or losing time,” all of these urgent tasks were once defined as being ‘chaotic’ but are now simply expected of individuals in the workspace. This chaotic nature could result in raised stress for those that are not as equipped as naturally for ADD and ADHD-like behavior. This behavior could be severely detrimental to those that have strengths in focusing on one task or on the task at hand, causing these individuals to fall behind. Both of these ideas working together come to show how ADD and ADHD is present in today’s environments and how they can both benefit and be detrimental to those whose minds are learning and growing.