The Impact of Media

I just read the news and at the top was yet another article about another brutal murder.  When reading I was just so disgusted I could not make it all the way through. Not because it was a bad article, but because horrible things just seem to happen all too often. How sad and pessimistic it may sound, the world might head for an even more violent future if we do not act soon.

Humans have existed for a few hundred thousand years and most of that time the cultures have been defined by verbal traditions. A new era began about five thousand years ago when cultures started to rely on written resources.  In the last century we have entered yet a new age where mass-media plays the most important role. In no other time in history information, good and bad, has been spread as fast as today.  Of course this cultural change will affect humans in many ways.  The first media generation has entered adulthood and, as many studies prove, the way this generation feels and behaves towards each other and our world is not fully satisfactory. The insecurity is greater than in any previous generation, and aggression and depression common. Crime, violence and hostile behavior are increasing and if we do not try to stop this trend, it will become the norm.

Media just pushes out violence and brutality and of course it will affect the minds of people watching. Internet has wrecked the idea that love is something special and school social workers are busy teaching teenage boys how to behave in a relationship and girls to say no to things they do not want to do.  Young children got to bed with nightmares because they have seen films they were too young to understand. We are all influenced by the things we experience, whether they are chosen by free will or enforced upon us.

Quite a lot of studies have been made into the way children are affected by watching TV and other media such games with a high content of violence.  In a young age children cannot differentiate themselves and their fantasies from the real world. By playing games that mixes reality with fantasy children learn about themselves and the world. In their games they also act out things they might be pondering on, their wishes and things they have been through.  If a young child has been to the dentist, the child might play a game where all the teddies and dolls have to go to the dentist. If you take a child to the zoo, the child might talk about strange animals for ages afterwards. If a child is let to watch a lot of violence, not surprisingly, the child is very likely to play violent games. Acting out what they have been through is a normal way of trying out new concepts and form ideas about how to interact with other people.