Violence in Todays Society

A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.

Teenage murders may be unprecedented, but violence is not. The past has followed us right up to today. Several national magazines recently ran alarming stories about the epidemic of criminal and group violence. Rolling Stone in "A Pistol-Whipped Nation" and both Time and Newsweek ran alarming cover stories about the "virtual epidemic of youth violence." Newsweek's "Teen Violence: Wild in the Streets," decried the number of young people carrying guns, using them, being shot, and being killed. Accompanying all this was a casual if not blase attitude indicating that, as one expert quoted in Time put it, "Violence is hip right now."

There is a strong agreement among American society that violence in the country is on the rise. It is easy to see why this is a strong argument among the American people, especially because of the rising popularity of violent video games and television programs. However, as these violent video games and television shows are creating their own place in our society, the reports of violence among children are escalating. This correlation has been studied extensively in the scientific community in an attempt to discover whether media violence does negatively impact children but there has yet to be a consensus. There is a split between those that believe that children are becoming more violent because they are exposed to violent media and

On average an American is exposed to approximately 200,000 violent acts before the age of eighteen. However, these exposures do not influence an individual to exhibit violence. Concerns regarding whether television and video game violence has a negative effect on society by promoting violence, dates back to the 1950’s and is still prevalent today. Studies and research conducted on the issue are unable to prove that the two variables have any correlation to each other. In fact, statistics demonstrate how the amount of violent crimes has decreased significantly throughout time despite growing video game popularity. Lastly, in society people look for anything to transfer the blame, especially in regards to a situation that may threaten an individual’s society. As a matter of fact, by reviewing the extensive research the conclusion was drawn stating exposure has no effect on violence. Therefore, television and video game violence does not have a negative effect on society.

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

This article is centered around how the violence in video games, music, and TV can affect children and the things that pediatricians can do to help. This book was written by The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization for physicians and the public that is committed to keeping others up to date on current issues going on in society. They found that exposure to violence at a young age can contribute to aggressive behavior, and to things such as violence and nightmares. The last part of the exposure section talks mainly about how the media portrays heroes as being able to use violence as a way to achieve their goals and win at certain things.

In Brad Bushman’s and Rowell Huesmann’s Article Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine journal, they believe the violent media in video games, tv shows, music, and movies, are affecting behavior in children and adults. Bushman and Huesmann believe that all the violence that has made a more popular appearance in today’s culture is causing for adults and children to be more prone to aggression. They hypothesized that the long-term effects would be greater in children and the short-term effects would be greater in adults, and discovered their hypotheses to be correct. Other articles, such as Beth Stein’s If Violent Video Games are Harmless Fun,

This could be opening the doors to a plethora of other cases and assumptions that can lead to our youth potentially becoming killers. Research was conducted on the exposure of television violence and its effects on kids, organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that there is a cause and effect relationship amongst those exposed. However, such studies does not demonstrate that media violence causes aggressive behavior, only that the two phenomena exist together (207). This finding was used to make the assumption that it would likely be the case with video games.

Violence is a difficult term to define, but for the purposes of this assignment violence can be defined as a crime or the threat to commit a crime by one person upon another person, and that usually that has negative physical or emotional effects upon the victim. Violence in Western society has been increasing steadily and has become a major concern for many nations. Increasingly, much of the violence is committed by male children and teenagers. Crimes by young people are no longer just misdemeanors, but they now include the major felonies of rape, robbery and homicide. The rise in violent crime in the last few decades has been accompanied

Arguments concerning social media’s affect on children often being with television. Experts on the other side of the argument claim that television leaves a negative effect on children that leads to obesity and violent behaviors. Manfred Spitzer writes “After 6 months, children in the intervention school had a lower BMI and behaved less violently during break times…” (pg. 1388). Not only are the effects written by Spitzer possible but experts also argue that children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Children may be more fearful of the world around them and they may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways towards others. The violence exposed to children through media doesn’t cease to exist with only television. Video games are often blamed for violence crimes in children and youth as well. Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist along with others concluded in a 2010 review of video game violence showed that “evidence strongly suggest that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.”

One of the many observed effects of social media is the violent tendencies that seem to become more common in the upcoming generations. Many video games and movies show a lot of violence and these things can sometimes make an impression on the children. Even though there are many studies on media violence on children, there are really no clear answers. But different television, film, video games, etc. have definitely raised the level of violence in children and it continues to rise. Murray, a developmental psychologist, says even though that television and film are just as violent but video games are more worrisome in that it requires the player to be heavily involved in the game, and through repetition

Most experts contend that violent television shows, video games, and toys promote aggression and destructive behavior. Rhodes (2000) states, “The American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Institutes of Mental Health say that there is a link between entertainment and violence. In fact, no direct, causal link between exposure to mock violence in the media and subsequent violent behavior has ever been demonstrated…” (p. 555). While violence in entertainment is pervasive and a real concern; it needs to be understood and addressed rather than blamed as the cause. After all, it is possible seek solutions to minimize violence when you understand the nature of

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

Furthermore, both Dr. Ferguson from University of Central Florida and Dr. Olson from Harvard School of Public Health conducted their own research in search for a correlation between media violence and violent behavior. Notably, they concluded that “parents should not worry about violent or other M-rated video games having a profound effect on their children’s behavior or values” (Bushman). Video games bridge the gap between the virtual and the real world. It is an escape for people, especially for adolescents. Likewise, challenges within the game spark the creativity and imagination of the mind. According to Jones, psychologist “Melanie Moore, Ph.D, who works with urban teens [believe that] children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient selfhood” (Jones 65). With a violent media, such as video games, young adults have an outlet of all their feelings and empowers them to be in control of their own emotions. Having this outlet also allows them to understand their own complex emotion as well as mature at a faster rate than those who are sheltered by their parents. While violent media can cause aggression, the violent response is often rooted from within.

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the