Is Media Responsible For Violence?
CaLFiN
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6909Members
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6909Members
in Discussions
Would you say that media and computer games are responsible for violent crimes? Many researchers try to pin violent crimes on computer games such as CS, rap/death metal music, and violent films.
Do you beleive that media could actually make a child do such things, or do you think there's other reasons behind it?
Do you beleive that media could actually make a child do such things, or do you think there's other reasons behind it?
Comments
I would totally agree in saying that computer game violence has desensitized me (thx, Col. Grossman) to violence; however, I would in no way say that I'm more violent, or even more prone to violent.
Whether somebody is violent or not all depends on his own mind; the way people RESPOND to violence can be altered by the media.
I feel, in my opinion, that it's impossible to blame violent movies or video games for Real Life™ violence. When it comes down to it, violent video games, for example, are trying to achieve realism, trying to immitate life, by doing so some of it will be exaggerated (see GTA or Postal) but on the whole, it's depicting real life actions in a "safe" environment where it is made ABUNDANTLY clear it is not real.
From watching violent films, they're either so unrealistic or fantastical that they can't be considered an obvious encouragement to lead people to go on killing sprees (well, ok, after watching aliens i wanted to shoot some aliens, but hell, they're not real), on the other hands films can be so gritty and realistic (best example i can think of being American History X) that it just repulses you, violence is ugly, REALLY ugly.
I don't feel that any "sane" or "stable" person would end seeing a movie by going to have a fight, or someone, after completing DooM, feels like going out and killing someone. Such an extreme change of opinions is nigh on impossible just because you saw it in a movie or played a video game, i didn't go in to watch Jason Vs Freddy as a sane, responsible member of society and come out wanting to kill someone. I feel it takes a certain type of "sick" person, or maybe just a violent person, to be encouraged to be violent because of violent acts in media. These people, however, would be considered violent or dangerous as it is, so i highly doubt a movie or a video game would have any bearing.
As with most i type, this is probably just BS, but it's just my opinion.
I don't think that you have to be mentally ill to absorb media then go out and do it. At a young age you might not know the effects of what you do.
Also, esuna... Do you think the people that you described would do what they do if media wasn't involved?
This is my theory. Violent stuff doesn't f**k up a kid unless they are really little, it merely forces them out of kiddie fantasy land quicker and into a more grown up state of mind. When kids watch sesame street, they stay kids. After all, consider the age that people became adults in ancient cultures, something like 14. Now if mental adulthood is capable of coming 14, when does mental puberty come? 8? Parents who force their kids to have more grown up responsibilities, combined with more grown up freedoms, will get kids who mature quicker mentally.
The media does effect people, television effects teenagers, they see what is considered cool and normal and try to follow that code that everyone else follows. Don't follow the norm, then your consididered different. It can then be narrowed to many things, like peer pressure and family pressure. It is like a food chain, from the source, things keep on getting narrowed down to a smaller and personal level, either way everyone is effected.
There are many things responsible for violence, the causes are plentiful and the effects are many.
It depends on the person's mind and thinking capability, has he been brought up intelligently by intelligent parents? Has he been taught not one, but both sides of things?
Yadayada, there are so many possibilities.