The Mass Media Increases Violence

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As television and video games become more popular due to technology, so does the increase in violence. With the increase of technology more children are playing video games or watching television shows, rather than playing outside. As some television shows and video games provide an educational experience for younger children, most provide an act of violence. Sixty-six percent of children programs have violence associated with the television show (Hamilton 111). While most children television shows have the good vs. evil concept, most use violent means to solve or settle their problems, such as in the shows Power Rangers, Power Puff Girls and most comic book heroes. Today, television is not the only means of violence media and the increase of “video games have become one of the dominant entertainment media for children in a very short time” (Gentile 131). It has been studied that children as young as two years of age are playing video games these days. Most of the popular video games today are considered violent, in which the main objective is to harm other characters. Violence that is displayed on television and video games do cause violence in society, due to the increase of wanting to imitate the characters portrayed on the different television shows and video games and the increase of aggression due to what is seen.

Imitation is the biggest concern of increase of violence. Monkey see monkey do is definitely true in the case of children wanting to imitate different scenes that are on shown on television and video games. It does not matter the region of the world or the age, a lot of children and teens watch television shows and video games that are associated with violence. In several cases teens imitated television shows and...

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...essive as those who had watched the real person use the mallet; and both were more aggressive than those who had only watched the cartoon (Research).

Imitation and the increase of aggression in a person are both do to watching violent television shows and playing violent video games. Surveys show that there is a large amount of violence in today’s media. Many children and teens spend a large amount of time watching or playing violent media. Parents should take into consideration of children learning programs that do not show violent content and also buy none violent video games for their children. There are many educational programs and games. There are also new settings on television that parents can set so your children can only view certain shows that are appropriate for them. Overall mass media does cause violence in society and should be taken more seriously.

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