Introduction
To begin with, it is accepted in the society that the flow of mass media is usually full of negative news due to its scandalous and resonance outcome and effect on a simple observer. The survey of terrific danger and various problems in social, economic or political life of a country is a core element of the media significance. The ratings and the promotion of different channels play a grave role in order to involve the larger audience that is possible.
In fact, the most active layer of the society, meaning youth, is usually impressed by what they can be available on TV with. The filtering of programs makes no sense until stating the cases of adolescence aggressiveness in places where they communicate. It is rather significant to find an answer to whether media really causes aggressive attitudes of teenagers? Also it is useful to find arguments on point of violent scenes in media and their influence on youth.
Points on violent scenes in media
The point is that many teenagers in the United States are provided with many kinds of media, namely television, computer games, video CD etc. The reason of a child’s need for activity, which is seen by parents as a simple entertainment for teenagers not to bother and annoy their mom and dad, is observed in the findings of every child to invent something new for him or to imagine himself as a warrior or a “good guy” from a blockbuster.
One of the social figures observing the phenomenon of great influence of mass media Andrew Guest states in his book “Most reasonable people agree that both nature and nurture, both genes and culture help shape development.” (Guest, 2) That is why it is not always true that violence is nurtured from the date of birth. Genes, of course, play significant role, but the surrounding circumstances and moral conditioning of a child inside the family are no less important. If this factor is trite, then media substitute timeless values of the family. It is rather difficult to find a right answer of in what time it was better to bring out children, but, at all accounts, every bean has its black.
Many scholars state the dangerous impact of the inventions of the high-tech era on children and stand for the resolving of the problem on the governmental level due to some guidelines to the basic law. Still the problem of aggressiveness on the screen cannot be solved due to great amounts of money which movie-making and entertaining industries give to the state budget. In this case it is fair to point out what is more significant for the state: its future generations and their well-being or just material amenities which, as a matter of fact, usually omit the humane side of mankind due to their ability to give birth inside a man to a specter of negative character features as evil, hatred, greediness etc.
The negative effects of media
The question which is entitled in this paper cannot be ignored and does have the straightforward confirmation of effects which, from the psychological point of view, creates a teenager’s imagination accompanied with direct scenes of aggressive attitudes of the characters with shades of strong intentions to follow such a way of acting. These intentions have resulted in multiple examples of violence which are seen today in schools and other educational establishments.
Many of teen people are assured that they will not live more than 35 years. These statistics was represented to the public observation due to Dr. Borowsky. When interviewing different groups of adolescents with different backgrounds and origins she ran across terrible facts with which now lives the young generation of American people.
In the first set of interviews, nearly 15 percent of adolescents predicted they had a 50/50 chance or less of living to age 35. Those who engaged in risky behaviors such as illicit drug use, suicide attempts, fighting, or unsafe sexual activity in the first year were more likely in subsequent years to believe they would die at a young age. (Borowsky 2009)
The picture of today’s America is not so wonderful and fascinating. The fact that the US is the most armed country in the world according to the volumes of weapons per a family is one of the reasons for intentional urge of adolescents for making some bad deeds. It is a result, in fact, of a programming character among many films, games and other media. A teenager loses his consciousness as for the difference between real and virtual worlds.
Analyzing this example one can fairly see the difference, but with regards to a delicate psyche of young representatives of the society there is no such difference, because here appear the tools of unintentional external programming which are a primitive kinds of psychotropic weapons used in present days.
The situation when inner desire becomes stronger than rules adopted in the society implements the field for discussion about the problem of violent videos and about the lack of parents’ control over their offspring in everyday life. Moreover, people tend to use someone’s addiction for gaining financial profits and amenities to the detriment of common sense within state power and officials being somehow indifferent towards the future of the nation.
Conclusion
In a conclusion, it is vital to adhere to the psychological view on the problem. For prevention from a strong conviction of many American teenagers that they can make somebody die or be dead themselves because of negative thoughts infusion of mass media in violent scenes, Dr. Borowsky suggests the following solution: “Our findings reinforce the importance of instilling a sense of hope and optimism in youth. Strong connections with parents, families, and schools, as well as positive media messages, are likely important factors in developing an optimistic outlook for young people.” (Borowsky 2009)
References
Guest, Andrew. (2006) Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Lifespan Development. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Borowsky, Iris. (2009). Teens who believe they’ll die young are more likely to engage in risky behavior, University of Minnesota research finds. University of Minnesota Medical School. Web.