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Violence in the media, effect on teens

Rating: 2 votes, 5.00 average.
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

Updated 04-30-2010 at 03:57 AM by Heathcliff

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Comments

  1. Heathcliff's Avatar
    English assignment from year eight. a tad primitive to what I write now, but I may as well unleash it.

    I got an A+. I'm good at opiionated rubbish apparently.

    I'd have given it an A+ then. Probably a C+ now. Hehe.

    Only I love violent video games.
  2. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    I thought this looked remarkably familiar, and it does!

    http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?b=9819
  3. Lote-Tree's Avatar
    Modern computer games are not for kids. The average age of game player is 35.
  4. Maryd.'s Avatar
    Well, my dear, you know how I feel about parenting...
    When we grew up, we grew up with reality. However I remember having a cap gun, which I enjoyed playing with constantly. I loved that gun and shooting it any chance I got... That doesn't make me a mass murderer today.
  5. OrphanPip's Avatar
    I think that's great for year 8, I'm pretty sure I didn't write that well at that age. Although, I don't agree with the argument .
  6. Maximilianus's Avatar
    I was never a big fan of video games. However, I grew up watching action and horror TV shows and movies since a very early age, and I haven't killed anyone... unless I can't remember My mom used to ask me "isn't that too violent for someone so young like you?", and then I would say "is it? I didn't notice!" I mean, violence is normal for me in terms of entertainment. I grew up with it and I will keep consuming it, provided the story has a plot I find intriguing. And if I ever have children I think I won't forbid them what I wasn't forbidden myself. It wouldn't be fair for them. I grew up on a freedom of choice basis. So will they

    All that being said, even when I don't agree with the arguments presented, I think it's a very good essay :
  7. Heathcliff's Avatar
    Yea I don't agree either, but I had to write it.

    Plus I like violent games.
    Some of them are fun.

    Oops, didn't realise I'd already sent it.

    Thanks guys.