Entertainment, Media and Desensitization

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Recommended: Correlation between violence in media and violent behaviour

People of the 21st century have reached a point where violence such as the shooting of John F. Kennedy is being viewed as nothing more but entertainment. There is not one day in the year where graphical violence is not being viewed in some way or the other. Violence has grown to a point where it has attached itself to people’s everyday lives. It has gotten to the point where it has made a home within everyone’s mind. Murder cases, shootings, and even bar fights no longer affect people’s emotions the same way anymore. People are being emotionally numbed to modern day violence and are viewing it as a normal part of life. What is the reason behind this drastic desensitization? Many studies have been conducted towards answering these exact questions and the main reason behind desensitization to violence is the constant exposure especially amongst children and adolescents. Modern media such as video games, social networks, television programs, and movies are held responsible for this constant exposure to violence which is causing desensitization.
Many studies have been conducted in order to understand why media is affecting youth in such a manner. The common thing which researchers have discovered is that the upbringing of children and adolescents plays a key role towards their way of thought. Famous French psychologist Jean Piaget, developed a theory which explains children’s thought process: “He envisioned a child’s knowledge as composed of schemes, basic units of knowledge used to organize past experiences and serve as a basis for understanding new ones” (The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology). As children go through new experiences in their lives they use former knowledge to make sense of the newly found knowledge. Children also use...

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...Damaging to Kids?" (n.d.): n. pag. 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Stelter, Brian. "Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S." New York TImes. N.p., 3 May 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Van der Molen, Juliette H. Walma. "Violence and suffering in television news: toward a broader conception of harmful television content for children." Pediatrics June 2004: 1771+. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
Wynick, Alex. "Gun Violence Has Tripled in Children's Films - With More Gun Violence than Movies Aimed at Adults." Mirror News. N.p., 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
"Lighting a 'fire'." Variety 26 Nov. 2013: 10. Educators Reference Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
"Sex, Violence, and Profanity in the Media Fact Sheet, TV Statistics - Parents Television Council." Sex, Violence, and Profanity in the Media Fact Sheet, TV Statistics - Parents Television Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

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