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The Effects of Violence Among Children
The Effects of Violence Among Children
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Humans have always been curious. As a species, people naturally desire to know more. Even when dealing with the most unbearable tragedies, humans always try to watch and learn for experience. It is the reason a person watches the news after a natural disaster or is concerned of whether or not a plane crash was fatal. Sometimes individuals wish to understand certain situations that are difficult to comprehend, and through violent cinema, they are using films to acquaint themselves with the subject matter. As a direct result of real life grisly events, people are watching certain violent, tragic, and horrific films to familiarize themselves with experiences of which is foreign to them. Consequently, these film watchers are becoming desensitized and walking out of the theatre feeling more aware and less …show more content…
A person’s motive to watch gore and violence is fueled by their desire to explore and familiarize themselves with situations and emotions that could possibly be all too real. In Gerard Jones’s essay “Violent Media Is Good For Kids” Dr. Melanie Moore, a psychologist, supports this claim by stating: “‘Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient selfhood’” (374). Adults function in the same manner and also need violent films to explore those feeling that are locked away inside. By bringing them to the surface, we can confront those feeling and then grow accustomed to them. An example of individuals watching film to
2. According to Sobchack, contemporary screen violence greatly differs than portrayals of violence in years past. Today, violent scenes are careless and lack significance because we as audiences have become calloused and desensitized to any acts of violence. She states that there is “no grace or benediction attached to violence. Indeed, its very intensity seems diminished” (Sobchack 432). Senseless violence, gruesome acts, and profound amounts of gore are prevalent in movies today, and because even this is not enough, it must be accompanied by loud blasts and noise, constantly moving scenes to keep audiences stimulated and large quantities of violence for viewers to enjoy what they are watching. Decades ago, it was the story that was engaging to audiences and filmmaking was an art.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerard Jones, is an article which makes many claims to support the argument in which a controlled amount of violence could be beneficial for a young, developing child. Even though the topic of this article can be controversial, the claims serve to support the argument in many noteworthy ways. It is written in such a way that it tells a story, starting when the author was a child and works its way to his adulthood. In this case the author uses, what I believe to be just the correct amount of each rhetorical strategy, and fulfills his goal for writing the article. This argument is interesting and at the same time, effective. Throughout the analyzing process logos, ethos, and pathos are searched for and scrutinized.
In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Mildred, the protagonist’s wife, casually sits in the parlor watching as “three white cartoon clowns chopped off each other’s limbs to the accompaniment of immense incoming laughter.” (Bradbury 94). Mildred watched and laughed as the clowns deformed each other; it was her way of entertainment. But “An online classroom dedicated to psychology, noted that “Children who view violence are more likely to have increased feelings of hostility, decreased emotional response to the portrayal of violence, and injury that lead to violent behavior through imitation.” (Scribner). But for many people, they not only see violence on television, but also in live screenings. Domestic violence consumes the lives of “4,774,000 women and 1,509 men” (Statistics) in the United States alone. But domestic violence is also present in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. “He caught her, shrinking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him. He slapped her face, he grabbed her again, and shook her.” (Bradbury
This article also makes referral comparison to another genre of film “Unlike in other genres (detective, thriller), there is usually neither sympathy for the victims of Evil nor admiration for heroes opposing it.”(Kord, 2016) Violence is what triggers the guilt in the audience and what starts to make them speculate of their morality. “Violence may well be the horror film’s way of hacking away at its audience to engage with guilt. Admit who you are. Admit what you did.” (Kord, 2016) The author questions other theorists with an ample amount of valid research from validated
In “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. He lived in a world where he was taught to be the violence fearing, and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. But, when one of his mother’s students gave him a Marvel comic book, his fearfulness was transformed into inspiration. He found a way to escape these discouraging feelings through the “stifled rage and desire for power” (Jones 285) that he had newly found. The popular comic book hero “The Hulk” freed him from his passive and lonely persona. Throughout the article he cites his testimonies and the testimonies of others as examples; and shows how they used violence as a positive realm for “overcoming powerlessness.” (Jones 287) Ultimately, Jones is trying to convey the message that violent media can provide kids with psychological tools for coping with the problems that they face as they grow. Although there are slight hints of biased evidence, “Violent Media is Good for Kids” should be considered for the top prize for persuasive essays.
It has been happened frequently in today’s society that parents and teachers try to keep children away from violent media. Children are taught that violent is not right and dangerous. In the article, “Violent Media Is Good for Kids”, Gerard Jones asserts that allowing children to violent media instead of banned it can bring great benefit to children during their growing stage. By watching violent media, children learn to overcome fear, control the rage and prove the real self from the superheroes in the story. Jones believes that violent entertainment can assistance children to fulfill emotional and development need. In my opinion, Jones develops a persuasive argument because of his strong emotions, considerable evidences and reasonable assumptions.
When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
Before a person reaches the age of 18 they will have witnessed over 40,000 murders, and over 400,000 other acts of violence. One research study concluded that just one hour of television everyday will increase the chances of a person committing an act of violence by four times. Violence depicted in movies will leave an impression on the viewer and the feelings they had about violence will slowly and subtly begin to change as the person becomes desensitized to violence. Witnessing repeated acts of violence raises a person’s level of hostility and lowers empathy. The violence that is portrayed in movies and television has long been known to influence crime and violent behavior in our society.
mesmerized by TV and can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, you find they begin to laugh at the violence”. (Grierson, Adbusters 2) Children who view a lot of
The media, specifically television, has become more and more violent, in not all too subtle ways, exposing many children to behaviors not appropriate to a young audience. Remember ?the Menendez brothers, who ruthlessly shot their parents as they ate ice cream and watched TV in their family room, planted in children?s minds the worst possibility -- that a parent could die violently at the hands of a child.? (Medved, et. al. 243) Seeing the violence, hearing about it, watching news reports about violent acts committed by real people, especially other children, affects the viewer negatively. Children can not relate to what they see when they are so young, making the act of watching violent television extremely questionable. Children should not know about murder and rape; however according to Gloria Tristani, Commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, by the time they finish elementary school, children have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence. (Tristani...
Violence, along with pornography, is one of the largest topics of the censorship debate, as well as the effect of exposure to violence. “Until age nineteen, children and teens exposed to media violence are more likely to view violence as a normal behavior and to become criminals themselves,” says New Republic editor Gregg Easterbrook. People, mostly children, who are still in the formative stages of their lives will be much more influenced by maliciously aligned media than those who are older, and have already established their core values and beliefs. However, it has also been shown that the acts of violence and murder frequently shown in movies (and seemingly replicated by some few children) have also occurred in children before the invention of television, or film - such as in the Leopold-Loeb “Perfect Crime” murder case of 1924, which was in fact later adapted into its own violent media five years later (Easterbrook 1). In the Leopold-Loeb murder case, Nathan Le...
The exciting freedom found in harming others in a safe context behind the screen makes violent video games very attractive and a good seller. With the increase of popularity of violent video games, violence as a whole has increased along with it, possibly because of the desensitization that has taken place towards violence. Desensitization in Social Psychology is described as, “a result of exposure to large amounts of violent content in television programs, films, and video games, individuals become less sensitive to violence and its consequences (pg323).” In an experiment done in 2011, Kraha et al measured the skin reactions of people while they watched a violent or sad film. Less skin arousal was recorded by those who had been previously exposed to high levels of violence, which shows the effects of desensitization and it’s impact on the body’s
Today’s children view vast amounts of violence on television. A steady diet of death, killings, torture, and other grotesque acts may be viewed on any day by vulnerable youth. When children are young, they are impressionable to all their surroundings, and especially vulnerable to what they see. Scientific research validates this fact. In studies by the National Institute of Mental Health, educators have learned that children who watch violence often act out this violence.
Television violence causes children and teenagers to be less caring, to lose their inhibitions, and to be less sensitive. In a study on the connection between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people (Kinnear 26). William Belson also discovered that every time a child viewed this violence on television, they lost a fragment of their inhibitions towards others (Kinnear 26). In addition to William Belson’s study, studies done by many scientists and doctors show that seeing violence on television causes viewers to become less sensitive to the pain of others (Mudore 1).