Mass Media plays a greater role than the people around you in the development of your personality

Rebuttals(1) Willingness to accept suggestionsI would like to agree that a person cannot be hypnotized against their will. As most medias are inanimate, it is impossible for those forms of media to influence a subject against their will. The subject must be willing to turn on the TV, sit down, relax, and listen to the suggestions that are coming from the medium in order to be influenced. Just the act of turning on the media implies a surprisingly large amount of agreement.(2) The contradictions claimed in the link you providedDr. Bruce Elmer's Hypnosis center seems to be trying to make a distinct difference between entertainment hypnosis and therapeutic hypnosis. He often refers to Svengali type hypnotism a lot. And even makes the suggestion that people would naturally act like chicken or pretend they are stuck to certain object on their own free will. In FAQ 6, he says that a person will be awake during the hypnosis, but in FAQ 7 he claims that a suggesting will be used in order to bring a person back into the waking world. How can this be? Either I'm not awake and I need to wake up, or I am awake. In FAQ 11, he claims that " His analyzing thinking mind (Conscious mind) is turned off and his feeling and intuitive and creative mind (Subconscious) is aware of everything that is going on. " The Conscious mind is turned off. Why does the conscious mind need to be turned off? If the subject is fully awake, has full control over all of their actions, and is not susceptible to any suggestions outside of their own will, why even hypnotize them in the first place. Let's just tell them what they want to hear, or rather they should tell themselves what they want to hear and the problem will be solved. Dr. Bruce does make one point that I agree with. People age 12-20 are more susceptible to hypnotism. Why that age?According to this article from successful parenting, the ability to think abstractly is present at age 12 and individuals are developing their ability to think abstractly Arguments against Interpersonal influence.(1) The Generation Gap. I was actually going to use this as part of my argument to prove that parents don't have that much influence on the next generation as we like to give them credit for, but then I found out that "generation gap" was a phrase made up in the 60's by the media to separate a more susceptible generation from their older counterparts. It actually proves my point more, now that I know it was a media suggestion that nearly everyone believes in. I would also like to claim that it is unnatural and therefore superior to the influence of parents. The Amish people have been living for a long time without television, and their children grow up and are Amish. Without television influence, there is a better chance that children will grow up to be like their parents. http://www.princeton.edu...This fact that generation gap was a media invention show that parental influence is the second most powerful influence, and not the first. (2) The age of RebellionAccording to this article concerning the age of the rebellion, the most common ages are 9-23. That completely encompass the ages mentioned as the best time to use hypnosis on an individual. http://www.psychologytoday.com... I could show other examples also but I find this particular one to particularly diminutive of the parental role "Just because they won't heed what parents say and want at the moment doesn't mean that reference is not worth giving. Since rebellion is often reinforced by messages from peers, parents should keep getting their message in there." It suggests that children won't heed what parents say, and that rebellion is reinforced by peers. This suggests that even peers are more influential the parents. And now parents are at number 3 on the most influential list. (3) Peer Influence. The following article make a highly suggestive claim. http://www.sylviarimm.com... "all of these [suggestions] are more effective with children in middle school than in high school, and none are guaranteed to be effective. No amount of parental influence is capable of overriding certain types of peer influence.(4) Self- Perception I just want to finalize this round with the idea that self perception is the most influencing factor in person's behavior. I was going to provide further links, but I already provided and far more than adequate video concerning how it is nearly impossible to change a person's perception of themselves without bypassing the critical factor. Peer influence is selective. Meaning that a person has the conscious ability to choose which groups he hangs out with and when based on his own self perception. As presented by all of the hypnosis articles it is possible to change a person's self perception during hypnosis. Thus changing a person's self concept and thus having the highest form of influence over behaviours.