During Carissa and Adam’s Friday debate/presentation we questioned whether or not Humans were inherently violent or if outside factors can manipulate this. Many ideas were presented through PowerPoint, and a really cool short video, such as how religion, television, movies or video games can or can’t contribute to human violence. The media truly is one of the most powerful influences on people, especially for us as young adults. Many TV episodes, movies, or video games present very violent or gruesome images as well and after seeing so much, perhaps it’s possible to become desensitized to the violent acts we witness, making it honestly not affect us a second time. Could this mean the violence shown will continue to escalate?
In the grade 11 course we read an article about Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s novel “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society.” It was about how during his time in the military he saw how some of the soldiers became conditioned to becoming psychologically fit for killing other human beings. The methods described weren’t something extremely far out, it just involved overexposing the recruits to violent games and movies for an extended period of time. He argues that we really do become desensitized to the violence and can really take on the psychological mindset of a killer, if necessary. During our discussion in class however, many people disagreed with this. The general consensus was that video games can be considered simply entertainment or movies can be consciously pushed aside as not real and we can therefore use them to relax or relieve stress. For the most part I agree with this, considering there have been safety precautions set in place, such as on video games the ESRB ratings. These are to prevent people of a young and unfit age to gain access to the really violent pieces of software. I know this is stressed because the cute chick at EB games seems to like to ID me and look at my horrible driver’s license picture. Nonetheless, there are many ways to get around this and perhaps age itself doesn’t necessarily reflect a person’s true mental state. Also, things like TV shows can’t be as easily blocked off. Also it is pretty easy to see the violence in games increase. In prior generations, it was very easy to understand nothing was real, because nothing actually LOOKED remotely real and a lot was up to the imagination. Now everything is created with complete photo realism. When you are shooting a person in a game, there is almost no denying it could be a real person.
Another issue can be the image of reality the media portrays to us. It is important to realize just how much the media affects our lives. Just thinking on a daily level, we are all presented hundreds of advertisements, through TV, billboards, internet etc, so much though that it really does affect our outlook on many things. As humans, we have a strong pull towards conformity and the media can make that be whatever they so wish. Just looking at the news on any given day, there can be many horrific stories or images. On a general scale things aren’t truly that bad, however who would watch the news if they simply reminded us everything is alright. Media studies has taught me that ALL MEDIA ARE CONSTRUCTIONS, so even the news, being composed of all real life incidents is also constructed in order to make the public feel a certain way. In constantly seeing the outside world as a dangerous and violent place, something known as the “mean world syndrome” comes into place. People’s actions can completely reflect their thoughts and so if they see the world as something dark they can act accordingly. Another thing is that in the past, TV was much stricter on what was shown and what wasn’t to be ever even thought of being broadcasted. The perfect family image was always the most prominent, but now it is much more eased back. Although many networks will try and put a cap on the intensity of what is shown, it’s hard to deny that people are interested in the violence. Crime drama programs which build their stories off of a brutal murder or something along those lines are extremely popular. (But back in the day, people would go to see real life executions) Even though some may consider shows like Jerry Springer to be completely trashy, even more will continue to daily watch it. I have to admit, it is entertaining.
In conclusion, no matter whether or not humans are inherently violent, it is clear that the media does have a strong impact on bringing out those instincts. (Also, on a side note I would have to say it is very possible that we are inherently violent. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” the poor innocent children had succumb to becoming completely savage due to the lack of order on the island and poor Piggy and Simon died. The powerful themes brought out in the novel always stuck in my mind and furthermore, if it’s in a book then it HAS to be true. ) From TV, to movies to video games, we are all exposed to a very understandable rise in the impact and quantity of violent images. Nevertheless, we still have the ability to distinguish what is real and what isn’t and therefore even if it takes a struggle, can maintain to be civilized. Parents should be extremely aware of what exactly their kids are being exposed to and help to further clarify that what they are witnessing isn’t real. Also they should never buy their child Grand Theft Auto 4.
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Great title and write up
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