Media Violence in John Macionis’ Society: The Basics, and Carl Honoré’s In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

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Introductory Paragraph
This essay will explore the ways in which media violence affects our culture and in particular the changes it causes in behavior of children today. It will use references from in-class lectures, John Macionis’ Society: The Basics, and Carl Honoré’s In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed to make points that support or oppose the idea that violence on television in our society is affecting our youth, and therefore, our future.
Limits on Our Choices
Nature versus nurture has always been a significant debate in society. Do a person’s choices reflect the make up of their genes or the sum of their surroundings? For the sake of this section, we will assume that the majority of people are more greatly affected by the society that surrounds them. The process in which people grow based on their environment is called socialization. Sociologists believe that there are four major agents of socialization, that is, the groups people are apart of that influence their decisions and their role within society. These agents are family, school, peers, and mass media (Lecture notes, Chapter 2). Growing up, children all over the country are told that they can do, be, and achieve whatever they want. In reality, this is not always true. Each of these agents of socialization creates limits on the choices we make. For example, a teenager living in the South might want to dress in all black and draw violent cartoons for a living. If this teenager is a member of a family who disagrees with things associated with this lifestyle, he is not as free as he could be to make the choices he wants. His school might also implement a dress code policy that does not support such a pessimistic portrayal of their students. Overtime, ...

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...he entire group forever.
Impact of the Video on You?
The Mean World Syndrome opened my eyes to a world that I have been living in my whole life. Before seeing this video, I was just like the fish, knowing nothing but a violent culture. Even in the short time since first viewing the film, I have been far more conscious of the way television affects me. Though I do not have the means to change the way certain people and ideas are portrayed to me, I do have the choice to limit my own exposure to violence. Merely being aware of the phenomenon that is the cultivation of fear has played a part in possibly reversing the damage this mean world has had on my psyche. I now feel the need to protect myself and those I love from being sucked into the vortex of violence in America, because it is a slippery slope and none of us would want to be on the wrong end of the judgement.

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