Violence and the Media

I feel that people are inherently violent, but it depends on nature and nurture. In psychology, we have studied about how kids were in a study involving violence. These kids were in a room with a television. They were watching either a peaceful cartoon or a violent cartoon. Those that watched the violent cartoon were shown kids hitting dolls and punching things and hitting other toys. Then, they were sent to a room full of toys and a big doll. Those that were shown the peaceful show played with the other toys and did not out as much attention to the doll as those kids that were shown the violent show. When then violent kids came into the room, the first thing that they approached was the doll. They stabbed the doll, sat on the doll, hit the doll, and much more. They spent the entire time with that doll. The study concluded that kids who were taught violence attempt more violence than those that are not. As concluded, kids' violence comes from nurture. 

When I was at Earlham in my summer program, our professor told us about his nephew. His nephew had never seen a violent show or given any toys that included violence: tanks, guns, soldiers, etc. He explained that one day, the boy was out in the yard and found a stick that looked like a gun. The boy ran to his younger sister and put the stick as if it was a gun. They were impressed how they had never shown the boy these things and yet he knew how to 'function' a gun. 

All of these kids learn to be violent because of what they watch in the media. Many shows now must have someone hitting another person, killing, stabbing, and anything related to violence. Many shows that have this are everywhere. Violence is taught as something that must be everywhere so that the viewers stay and watch the show. Some shows that I have watched that contain violence are Jersey Shore, Awkward, Spongebob, i-Carly, Kid vs. Kat, and basically everything. We must also take into consideration the movies that these children are exposed too. For example, Scream, Twilight, Scary Movie, Batman, Spiderman, etc. Just think for a second what happened in Aurora after the premier of Batman. Many people died because of the shooting. Think about what kids would been thinking that this super hero was killing another person and the enemy was using guns and tanks. That is scary. This is not all, think about how many violent video games there are out there. Every game has guns and tanks and soldiers: Grand Theft Auto, Dead Rising, Manhunt, God of War, Mortal Kombat, Dead Space, and the list goes on. Many of these games have been banned in many countries because of their violent fights and graphics but that is not enough. Many other kids are playing these games and this does not help to break this trend. Just think about what these kids are exposed too. 

Kids might not be exposed to these things, but they are always going to be thinking about violent and policemen and fighting. The media just poisons their brains more and more.