Violence in the media, effect on teens
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, 04-30-2010 at 03:53 AM (8476 Views)
VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA, EFFECT ON TEENS
To the editor,
The media, and the violence within it, is of great influence to children and teenagers. A key reason for today’s youths behaving violently is what they see on television and video games and what they hear in modern music. Parents and the media are battling to make an impression because the world of technology is winning. Teenagers are using it to learn and communicate, so they are also being filled with the violence inside it. Nobody wants teens to rebel, just as the characters that match them do if they lose their fight. They can also see the victim, perhaps someone of different nationality, and want to hurt them too. So, what happened to a child’s innocence?
Today the media has more control over teenagers than their parents do. Until the age of 18, it is still a parent’s responsibility to raise their child. Surprisingly, an online poll indicates that nineteen percent of parents are more worried about their 17 year old playing the video game ‘Grand Theft Auto’ at a sleepover than drinking alcohol (14%) and watching pornography (16%). Youths have so many rights these days and the media gives them new ideas and perspectives. It teaches them and influences them in ways their guardians fear.
At such an influential age, and the media being such a dominant field, teenagers are being educated with violence. The media influences the way young people are entertained and how they communicate. Their minds are like sponges and they easily absorb what they see. This motivation is great at school, but it makes the future hardly as hopeful while they are witnessing vile and criminal acts that are on television, radio and in equally lethal video games. Violence in the media teaches teens about weapons, fighting, sex and racism. What they see, the painstaking hurt that is overlooked, only makes them react.
If the story relates to an individual and their own character is defeated, they are losing too and are likely to force that pain onto others. This happens often when different races, and everyone can relate to a nationality, fight and one team isn’t so successful. Would they hate the country that hurt them? Would they try to get even? Still, there is no bad guy, as equality has become favourable. However, think about the words of Dr. Victor Strasburger, a paediatrician at the University of New Mexico Medical School: “I think the next time we see a schoolyard shooting if we ask those kids ‘Why did you do it?’ they would say, ‘Hey we’re the good guys, and we just wanted to blow away the bad guys.”
Violence in the media make teens behave exactly the same way. Parents don’t need the worry, young adults don’t need to learn how to be violent, and despite the success, or failure, of nations in battle, youths needn’t be effected. The violence on television, in music and in video games has to disappear, so teenagers can grow up in harmony and secure in their safety.
REFERNCES:
ADVISORY/Mediascope Provides Research on FTC Study Regarding Entertainment Violence. – Free Online Library.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ADVISO......-a065149723
Date accessed: 25/5/09
Does TV Violence KILL? – Free Online Library.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Does+T...%3f-a059410402
Date accessed: 25/5/09
What They Play(TM) Finds Parents More Concerned About Video Games Than Alcohol and Pornography; Violence More Acceptable Than Sexual Content. – Free Online Library.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/What+T.....-a0182598131
Date accessed: 25/5/09