Media Violence: Effects on Youth
Media Violence: Is It Corrupting Our Youth?
Ever since the Columbine massacre, there has been many people who blame video games for violence among our youth. In the past few years, it has become normal for all branches of media to depict violence as an everyday thing. Because a vast majority of children watch television or play video games, it is no wonder that adults try to make the connection between the two. Although the media can have an affect on kids, there are also a great many socio-economic factors involved in a child’s behavior. This is the problem our society faces now that some people say the media can influence your psyche, perspective, and overall behavior, but so do your friends, so do your parents, so do your teachers, so do books. The real question is who is to blame? Movies, music, television shows, video games, none of these things actually make people commit crimes. Violence in the media and the real world rise in violence among children is not a cause but merely a coincidence. A person is an accumulation of their real life experiences. Children do not turn into a crazed maniac after playing a computer game or seeing a movie with violence. The easiest place to obtain a mind for violence is from a home setting. Adults want to find an outside source for the growth in violence among children instead of taking the blame first hand. It is the parents, those actually responsible for this corruption, who try to suggest otherwise and negligence on the part of those who seek to find a different cause. Adults seem to steer away from the increasingly true fact that our whole American society is doing this to its younger generation, and not just the media.
To prove this, news reports after the Columbine massacre in which two troubled teens go on a murderous rampage, attribute the kids actions to a violent game called “DOOM”. The media is not the problem, because kids will act violent regardless. This tragedy was a result of a
Ever since the Columbine massacre, there has been many people who blame video games for violence among our youth. In the past few years, it has become normal for all branches of media to depict violence as an everyday thing. Because a vast majority of children watch television or play video games, it is no wonder that adults try to make the connection between the two. Although the media can have an affect on kids, there are also a great many socio-economic factors involved in a child’s behavior. This is the problem our society faces now that some people say the media can influence your psyche, perspective, and overall behavior, but so do your friends, so do your parents, so do your teachers, so do books. The real question is who is to blame? Movies, music, television shows, video games, none of these things actually make people commit crimes. Violence in the media and the real world rise in violence among children is not a cause but merely a coincidence. A person is an accumulation of their real life experiences. Children do not turn into a crazed maniac after playing a computer game or seeing a movie with violence. The easiest place to obtain a mind for violence is from a home setting. Adults want to find an outside source for the growth in violence among children instead of taking the blame first hand. It is the parents, those actually responsible for this corruption, who try to suggest otherwise and negligence on the part of those who seek to find a different cause. Adults seem to steer away from the increasingly true fact that our whole American society is doing this to its younger generation, and not just the media.
To prove this, news reports after the Columbine massacre in which two troubled teens go on a murderous rampage, attribute the kids actions to a violent game called “DOOM”. The media is not the problem, because kids will act violent regardless. This tragedy was a result of a