Desensitizing of America’s Youth.
By Goldie Thomas
F-Daddy
With the help of social media children of all ages are being taught behaviors that would have been in the past deemed unethical or immoral a few decades ago. Children are exposed to desensitizing material at a younger and faster much rate than they were before the age of the internet. Also with the formation of ISIS, a terrorist group known to actively uses Twitter as an outlet to the outside world, spreading their violence in forms of graphic executions. Kids get to see actual beheadings and other types of violence, this can result lead to those viewing such graphic material to become desensitized.With the rise of modern Television and more and more children succumbing to
…show more content…
Whether one use television to figure out the weather forecast for the week, or to catch up on one’s favorite soap operas, television is the best way to communicate with Americans. It's said that the average American spends about anywhere from four to six hours a day watching television. Many of these viewers are children or teens who will avail themselves to more adult shows. “With only 14 percent of the networks' schedules devoted to children, young people often resort to adult programs that, more often than not, feature adult topics such as violence, drunkenness, and promiscuity” (Chamberlin, Suzanne). Even with 14% of television devoted to children those shows can show different types of violence. These violent shows can viewing of cruelty and brutality pays a toll on the minds of its viewers and can sometimes carry the following effects: Copycat violence, exaggerated fears, and last but not least desensitization to violence. A lot of things seen by children on tv is often repeated in the real world, because they have no sense of morals at a young age, or even teens who lack the ability to think for themselves and are almost peer pressured into doing something that their colleagues told them to do. Like the incident on April 25, 2001. “Three young daredevils raced a car toward their friend who stood in the middle of a deserted Kentucky road. The boy, who was told to jump out of the way at the last possible second, was …show more content…
Several studies in the past decades have systematically assessed the prominence of violence in television. The results of the studies revealed that around 61 percent of shows on television alone contained some sort of violence, it is probable that those numbers significantly rose with the dawn of youtube and other forms of media that allows people to upload their own videos online for the world to see. Even terror groups use social media to show their violence such as ISIS and its twitter accounts revealing the beheadings of innocent civilians for the public to see. Violence in our society, though hard to admit is almost accepted and almost in a sense glamorized, “...nearly 75 percent of all violent scenes featured no immediate punishment or condemnation for violence. And almost 45 percent of the programs feature "bad" characters that are never or rarely punished for their aggressive actions.”(Donnerstein, Ed.) Most violence is not factual, as in the interactions that take place in let’s a fight or any other violent activity is unrealistic and not possible, but done in a way that some people viewing may accept it as possible and
Could one of the reasons for this be everyone thinks it is okay to be violent and cruel based on what is posted online daily? The “web” is in full control of adults, young adults and even small children. No matter what is being posted as they are seeing it, and watching it. This is their guide, this is what is teaching the world what to do and what is okay. If a young viewer sees a fight will it make them think it is okay? Social Media is a bad influence, and what is being posted is only making it worse. One fight can over a million views and half of those viewers are automatically affected. “The relationship between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior has been an ongoing focus of inquiry by academic researches and major health organizations for years” (Donnerstein 1). This proves that researchers have been studying the effects of the “media” for a long time, and it is indeed an issue that is still ongoing. It is also stated in the article that “Office of the Surgeon General of the United States found strong evidence that exposure to violence in the media is one of a number of risk factors that can increase children’s “aggressive behavior.” This is saying is it proven by researchers that violence in the media is definitely affecting behaviors of children. It is still a major problem, and the research has not
Leo, John. "The Amount of Violence on Television Has Been Exaggerated." Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1999.
With today’s technology and media presence, a child may watch more violence in thirty minutes than an adult experiences throughout their whole life.
The entertainment that television is now portraying is not exactly what the younger society of America needs to be exposed to, but unfortunately in today's economy that is the only kind of entertainment that sells. There is so much unnecessary exposure to violence, aggressive behavior, and sexual acts now being broadcasted daily on television, movies, music, and even the news. The broadcasting systems are now targeting younger children and teens. The crime rates have skyrocketed due to delinquent juvenile behavior over the past ten years. The whole viewing society is now becoming very tolerant and at ease with sex and violence. Youth and children are picking up on these behaviors daily. Studies have shown that by the age of 18, the average American teen will have viewed around 200,000 acts of violence on television. The violence and sexual content that television and music are now portraying has negatively influenced younger children and teens to commit murder, exhibit aggressive behavior, and become tolerant of violence and sex.
For a long time now the debate has been, and continues to be, as to whether or not violence on television makes children more violent. As with all contentious issues there are both proponents and detractors. This argument has been resurrected in the wake of school shootings, most notably Columbine and Erfurt, Germany; and acts of random violence by teenagers, the murders of two Dartmouth professors. Parents, teachers, pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and FCC Chairmen William Kennard and former Vice President Al Gore say violent TV programming contribute in large part to in violence in young people today. However, broadcasters and major cable TV providers like Cox Communication say that it is the parent’s fault for not making it clear to their kids as what they may or may not watch on TV. The major TV networks and cable providers also state it is the TV industry’s fault as well for not regulating what is shown on TV. So who is the guilty party in this argument of whether or not TV violence influences of the behavior young people in today’s society?
The video hosted by Bill Moyer that we watched in class on March 4th involved violence in the mass media and the effects that it may have on children in modern day society. Video games sometimes display graphic violence as well as violent verbal messages that often convey a message of appeal to children. Movies often combine humor, violence, and/or sex in order to be more appealing to the audience. Usually two or more of these factors are used. Whether it is through these sources or as something as simple as the evening news, violence is everywhere in the media today and displays messages of approval that American society may not realize.
This brings about another issue: children’s protection from this kind of content. More needs to be done to protect children’s eyes from inappropriate things on the TV, billboards, music, and other forms of media. Unfortunately, because society has gone as far as it has today, it will be very difficult to take a step back and re examine the effects violent media will have on children. People seem to care less and less about what children see. The need for protection from this type of content relies solely on the parents. Parents must take it upon themselves to guard their children against things on the media that they should not be seeing. Parents should be given different options with technology to help monitor the content their kids are allowed to see and what they are
As violence continues to rise the understanding behind the rise is still not exceptionally clear. It stems from the fact that violence has always been a part of our society(Noguera, 1994). While some forms of violence are frowned upon, others are glorified in the media. Violence in the media is huge entertainment for today’s society. The one fact that has become clear is that violen...
addition the average American child will witness over 200,000 acts of violence on television including 16,000 murders before the age of 18 (DuRant, 445). Polls show that three-quarters of the public find television entertainment too violent. When asked to select measures that would reduce violent crime “a lot”, Americans chose restrictions on television violence more often than gun control. Media shows too much violence that is corrupting the minds children, future leaders of our society. In a study of population data for various countries sh...
Does entertainment influence society's attitude towards violent behavior? In order to fully answer this question we must first understand what violence is. Violence is the use of one's powers to inflict mental or physical injury upon another; examples of this would be rape or murder. Violence in entertainment reaches the public by way of television, movies, plays, music, and novels. Through the course of this essay it will be proven that violence in entertainment is a major factor in the escalation of violence in society, once this is proven we will take all of the evidence that has been shown throughout this paper and come to a conclusion as to whether or not violence in entertainment is justified and whether or not it should be censored.
Society has been bombarded with violence from the beginning of time. These concerns about violence in the media have been around way before television was even introduced. Nevertheless, there have been numerous studies, research, and conferences done over the years on television, but the issue still remains. Researchers do acknowledge that violence portrayed on television is a potential danger. One issue is clear though, our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other significant causes of violence in our country such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is hard to report on how violent television effects society, since television affects different people in different ways. There is a significant problem with violence on television that we as a society are going to have to acknowledge and face.
Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2). Freedman goes on to explain that the FCC has no substantial scientific evidence stating that there is a correlation between fictional violence and real-world aggression among young audiences. He has completed research in 1984 and 2002 on the relationship between media violence to actual acts of violence on the street. Because he has completed research projects related to this topic, Freedman’s statistical evidence shows that there is a reduction in youth violence and it essentially does not cause real-world crimes (Freedman Par. 1). The FCC continues to claim that exposure to media violence does in fact increase aggression, and yet their readers continue to believe their fabrications. Freedman argues that people who research media violence tend to disregard and omit the opposing facts. No one type of violence is more effective on aggression than another type. There is no evidence showi...
of violence or tunes into their parents favorite soap opera might find an increasingly amount of exposure to violent acts and sexual content. Children are very vulnerable to such influences and often do not know the difference between right and wrong and the difference between reality and fantasy (Dritz, Russel 1996). As the years go on and television seems to be too censored to most, studies have continued to prove the increasing numbers of children associated with violence and sexual behavior. Although a seemingly older statistic, the Neilson Index averaged American children to watch 18,000 television murders before he or she graduated from high school (Tucker, Larry A. 1988). Could this be a reason for an increasing amount of murders and violent acts among children today?
By the time a child reaches the age of one, they see about 200,000 acts of violence on television. (Nakaya, 3). The Media has been becoming more and more violent over the years. A poll in an issue of Times Magazine, from 2005, showed that 66 percent of Americans think that there is an abundant amount of graphic acts of violence on televisions (Nakaya, 18). People are exposed to thousands of acts of violence through video games, television, and movies. Many studies show that media violence increases violent behavior in in humans. Studies show, violent video games, and graphic television have physiological effects on children. The government has very few regulations on media violence. Some people believe the government shouldn’t limit content because others might be insulted by its material. Media violence is such a broad topic and has such a large presence in daily lives, so we cannot simple get rid of it. The Federal Communications Commission stipulates, “By the time most children begin the third grade, they will have spent the equivalent of three school years in front of a television set.” Even though the government shouldn’t censor the media, Media violence is becoming a serious issue because it is becoming more violent, it makes people behave violently, and it has little regulations.
...onditions that ensure an adequate counterbalance increasing consumption in some cases, end up having a negative effect on children. Children learn best through demonstration followed by imitation, with rewards for doing things the right way. While not all are affected the same way, it can be said that, in general, violence in the media affects attitudes, values and behaviors of users. You run the risk that children end up understanding that it is reasonably practicable to resort to violence. The fear is that the models of aggressive behavior can be considered suitable. Thus, in an investigation, a good proportion of children (third) defined as normal acts of violence they had seen him mightily little. It is not; here is a risk of direct imitation, but rather a change in terms of reference: where extreme violence appears to be normal any more light may seem harmless.