Do you think media violence is partly responsible for the rise in real-world violence we are seeing
Now obviously some are going to respond with: "Absolutely not, that's crazy."
However, an important thing to remember is that our hearts, or deepest thoughts and motivations, are influenced by what we take into our minds.
There is an old saying in Alcoholics Anonymous : "If you hang around a barbershop long enough, eventually you're gonna get a haircut."
Likewise, if you surround yourself with violent or depraved type of entertainment, eventually it's gonna start influencing you, and not for the better.
It's really no different than hanging around people who are bad associates. Why do think criminals who get out of prison, are often time much worse than they were before they went into prison?
Thoughts lead to feelings, feelings lead to actions, actions lead to consequences.
There is an old saying by Earl Nightingale, the father of motivational speaking in America: "You become what you think about."
If you put good things into your mind, you're gonna get good things out. If you put garbage in, you're gonna get garbage out.
In fact they did a study on children who play violent videogames, and the study found that - particularly in boys - that their aggression level became significantly raised.
Listen to what this one TED talks spokeswomanhad to say about how youths are influenced by the media.
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Look at what happened in that theater in Colorado, where over 70 people were killed in a mass shooting. And it was all done by some guy who thought of himself as The Joker from The Dark Knight.
Without stating the obvious, where do you think he even got such an idea to commit such a heinous crime?
Also listen to what notorious serial killer Ted Bundy had to say the night before his death about prison life, those who had commited violent crimes, and the one thing they all had in common.
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To say that average people are not influenced by violence is ridiculous. Just go to any boxing/wrestling match, and you will often hear people shouting for one fighter to kill the other.
In fact if you pay attention to say for example the TWD section of this site, and notice all the Kenny/Jane arguments, you will often read comments as to why they would have Clementine kill one character one another.
And a lot of these are coming from people who have never commited a voilent crime in their lives, and I say that because the average person hasn't.
Yet they were talking that way all because of what they witnessed in a videogame.
(And just to be clear, I am NOT in any way shape or form trying to implicate anyone of anything.
I'm surely NOT saying that because of just witnessing one violent act or whatever in a video game, that people on here are going to start going out and committing acts of violence in real life.
I'm just merely noting that because of what was witnessed in a video game, how it caused a lot of its viewers to react.)
To sum up, I do believe that violent entertainment can lead to violence in real life, and I believe that the entertainment industry needs to be held to a much higher standard than what it has been.
When it begins to dare I say "glorify" violence and killing, that shows their is obviously something very wrong.
Now given of course that violent entertainment makes the entertainment industry Millions and Billions of dollars a year, obviously they are not going to be held to a higher standard. There's too much money involved!
And of course they're not going to have any conclusive studies done where media violence is going to be shown to be directly responsible for real life violence, because that would mean they would risk losing a ton of money, and also have to be held responsible for what they produce.
So with that being said, I would personally advise everyone on here, no matter how old you are, to be very careful about what you choose for entertainment.
Comments
I love Oscar Wilde quotes, so here you go:
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”
I disagree. I think that humans are naturally violent. The ability to survive and reproduce goes to the individuals most suited to accomplish those goals in a given environment. For humans, until recently, this meant fighting and killing and fucking everything possible until something finally did you in. We still have these drives. Fulfilling them vicariously is an excellent way to sate such desires without needing to actually carrying through the actions. Pretending that this stuff doesn't interest us and doesn't affect us "normals" doesn't do anyone any good.
It's actually very different than that. You see no difference between going to prison and watching a violent movie?
From an unimaginably complex compilation of natural and environmental factors that it would be laughable to track back to watching Batman.
It's nice that those people aren't killing each other in the stands or that the fighters are not killing each other in the ring (usually). I like to box and I like watching people box. It's a great way to relieve the stress built up by the monotony of every day life.
Sure, I wouldn't argue that partaking in violent media makes us more numb to death and violence, but what does that have to do with pushing people to commit heinous acts?
I agree that it can lead to violence in real life, I do not agree that it has a more negative effect than it does a positive effect, or that the negative effects are so negative that they justify any action against the violent media. What "higher standards" do you think would be acceptable? And do you plan on lawfully applying them? If not, then what do you expect to change? In a free market this violent media is exactly what the people want.
Or something very right. Shrug.
Interestingly enough there are studies that heavily suggest the opposite, that vicariously living out violence through whatever media actually leads to less violent action in real life.
I'm going to go play Postal.
No.
I watch violent films/shows and play violent games as much as anyone annd I hate real world violence.
If someone does something despicable based on something in the media, it's because they're already a little messed.
In my opinion, I think it has more to do with context than anything else. Violence has existed since the days of old Folk Tales, in fact it actually became watered down. Have you ever read an "Original" uncensored version of say Little Red Riding Hood? It's shocking, and it was a children's story. Remember it was a time that children often partook in house hold chores. This included "Slaughter" blood/gore. Dressing a chicken or goose so to speak.
In my opinion it's depriving, while in turn then presenting a false sense of what violence is.
However back to "Context." Bad Context, GI-Joe Cartoon Show. Everyone is running around with laser rifles, tanks, jets explosions everywhere but no one ever gets hurt. It gives children a very false representation of war. See my point.
It is embarrassing in my opinion that adults think children are unable, and not ready to comprehend the reality of violence or mature theme. When even a "child" knows what blood is, I mean every time they scrape a knee it's quite obvious. Why replace a "Gun" with a "Laser" for example? It makes no sense. It gives a child a false sense of violence.
Because they're cool.
Jokes aside, I do get your point.
Absolutely not, that's crazy.
Then why do they encourage you to hang around other alcoholics isnt that what aa is sitting in a room with other alcoholics and talking about booze?
And what is this study where boys were made more aggressive by playing video games most studies have found the opposite.
I believe most people have the will power to stick to their morals peer pressure or media is the excuse of a weak individual it reflects any responsibility on to others its a poor excuse used by poor examples of people.
Good example. Before 9/11 Toonami was playing on it's normal 4:00PM time slot Mobile Suit Gundam (1979). When 9/11 hit within a month they pulled the TV show from Toonami because it was considered "Too violent, too war oriented for children." While the USA itself was on the brink of war itself. A few years later they released a heavily, and I mean heavily censored version of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, in which they even went so far to color over all the fire arms and replaced them with lasers, and laser sound effects. Which was funny as Seed was one of the goriest and sexually oriented of the franchise. But it was still the most serious anime they put on US TV during Day Time TV in years since 9/11.
Lets just say the glowing bits, didn't originally exist. God for bid if children actually understood the concept of a "Toy" and a "Real" Fire Arm. It's insulting. 80s, 90s, I miss thee, when cartoon characters could freely point guns at each other on TV,
Lets just say it completely Bombed. The reason the show was good, was it's heavy theme, and they censored it completely out. lol
Yes and no.
Without a doubt, there are some people that do turn more violent because they are influenced by media, majority are already mentally ill, but I believe there would still be quite a few who grew up (maybe in an abusive family, or around violence) and films/games give them all the more reason to think violence is okay. I think that's something impossible for anyone to deny...there are 6-7 billion people on this planet...
However, I don't think it's to the level the media (ironic) portray it to be. People should have control over their conscience. Sadly, not everyone does.
The song Europa Globus comes to mind.
This for example pains me.
The trouble with this logic is that we mainly only KNOW about real world violence because of the media.
So if media stopped reporting on murders, gangs etc then it'd SEEM like there were less, but that's not grounded in reality.
Of course, why didn't you hear the old lady in the Dead Space 2 ad? A game about shooting aliens with lasers is exactly why there's so much crime and violence. Humans were never violent at all before media showed up, it's not like we had 5 or 6 wars and mindless bloodshed even before that or anything.
No, but it all seriousness, media isn't the problem. Yeah, media gets stupid and violent people riled up, but media doesn't create violent people. I've been playing shit like Red Faction and Doom since I was little and I despise violence and inflicting it upon others. My friend Nick grew up playing shit like GTA and he doesn't even jokingly hit people. Humankind has been stupid and violent since the beginning of time, whether you believe the broble or evolution, there has never not been a period where humans have been violent. It's just in our nature. Some people are just dumber and more violent than others.
I play a lot of games, but I don't really care if there is violence in them. I think battles/shootings/kills in games serve as a ground for making player feel like a winner, not like a killer. I find it hard to imagine a regular player enjoying the fact of killing NPC more than the fact of winning over the enemy.
Exactly at what point is violent media meant to start affecting us? I'll admit that I'm a short tempered person, but I am in no way violent (I yell and have a tantrum like a little bitch sometimes, but that's because I'm a spoiled bitch), and I've been played violent video games and have watched violent films all my life. It wasn't until a year before high school that I started having anger issues, and this was a full two years after I got my Xbox 360. I lose my temper from time to time nowadays, but that's mostly due to stress, and I still play a lot of violent games and watch a lot of violent films.
Now of course I can only speak for myself here. Media will affect us all in different ways, and it's simply untrue to say that everyone's affected the same way. Think about how many gamers there are in the world. Millions, I'd say. If such aggression and violence was common in people who view violent media, then wouldn't we see a lot more violence? Even in the U.S, there is less crime (including youth crime, based on some statistics), even though violent video game sales rose during the 2000's. The studies I have seen tend to vary. Some claim there is no effect of violent games or media (even on children), while some say that it depends more on the amount of time spent consuming media, while some say it only cause a SLIGHT TEMPORARY aggression in youths.
And then there's the matter of what should be done. Society loves drama. Every good TV show, book, film, or video game is built around drama or conflict. Take away that basic element, and all these forms of media will disappear. So who decides what is too violent or adult to be shown? When you decide that a certain piece of media is too graphic to be shown at all, you are sending the message to adults that they are not intelligent enough to be trusted to see the worst aspects of the human race. We as humans are a violent and aggressive race, as are many other animals, and hiding these violent or aggressive behaviors from the screen isn't going to mean they disappear in real life.
This article presented by Fox News.
You gotta de-foo from them violent games Stefan.
Doesn't mean it's untrue.
It's also not an argument that your point is not an argument. Cause as we all know, arguments are only arguments if the argument has any argument to it's argument.
...
Argument.
Nobody said it was.
I thought just mentioning argument would be enough of an argument to get a good argument on this argument.
Your argument move, argument.
Are you actually trying to make a point here, or has this suddenly become an inside joke that I don't know about?
But without government, who will build the roads?
That sounds like 'not an argument' talk to me.
Anything to say for yourself before we 'argument?'
If a videogame makes you commit violent crimes then you were already mentally unstable to begin with.
What the fuck is going on...
Which explains why ol' people always be like, "Back in my day this stuff never happened. People didn't go around killing and raping each other all the time." Sure they did. You just didn't hear about it geezer.
This you?
It's certainly responsible for desensitizing a lot of people to violence. But as for actually causing real world violence. Absolutely not, that's crazy.