Cause of increasing Violent Behavior among Youth – Assignment Help
Over the years media has played a vital role in reducing the social distances and it has now become the major source of entertainment. Every individual has their own values of entertainment and these values are inspired by an individual’s nature
On the other hand it has been argued that the violence shown in video games is effecting the mindset of youth. It will be argued that the violence showed over the media has played a major role in developing the violent behavior of youth because many kids get themselves attached with their favorite actors and because kids follow various acts shown in the program without realizing the fact that what negative impacts it might have.ß
Media is generally considered as one of the most basic and cheapest source of entertainment for families and individuals of any age. However the media, to a great extent, influences behaviors of individuals in a society. The media is held almost entirely responsible for the behavioral changes of the society (Science Daily, 2008). Youths below 18 or 20 possess a very immature mind, it is very easy to mould their thoughts towards good or bad. The shows presented in media, especially for children hold the liability of producing a good moral lessons. Many entertainment programs now contain violence in them just to engage the public attention, at the same time the National Television Violence Study, a three-year assessment of more than 3,000 programes a year, found that a steady 60 percent of programs across twenty six channels contain some physical aggression (Wilson, 2008). It is very common that children under the age of 18 get more emotional and consider themselves as a character in their favorite shows, in contrast the stunts presented in the show are then implemented practically in real life (Simmons. J, 2008). Generally it can be considered that majority of the videos showed on television consist of false content, something that has never happened, but impacted many of the teenagers in a negative way.
The violent activities being shown in media has been a serious concern of parents and teachers. Youngsters are more amused by the fights and the uses of firearms in the shows. Majority of the programs that consist of violent content should and must be considered only for entertainment, for example all the action thrill programs includes a warning message in the beginning that states all the action and violence in the program is only for entertainment. In a school canteen, a group of friends instead of discussing their academic performance, discuss and praise the heroic acts and fight styles of a hero (Science Daily, 2008). To increase their ratings; media is producing shows that has more violent content in it. Many incidents are recorded of students making gangs during schools hours, individual students imitating some hero and bullying fellow students, whereas an alarming situation aroused for parents and teachers when few students were found with a firearm in their possession within the school’s premises (Ybarra. M). Such an increase in violence among the teenagers is mainly because of the violent programs that are shown on television, encouraging the youth to act in accordance with their favorite actors.
From the exposure that youth get from programs that contain violent content they learn ideas, get encouraged and motivated to learn the behavior being displayed in the media (Wilson, 2008). Violent nature of programs is generally for the purpose of creating awareness in the society and not to get motivated from it. The majority of the youth are victimized with the help of the volatile media of any time that have both short and long term effects on them. In today’s world youths are so much immense in media that they consider it as their guide, sometimes they even change their life style impressed by a media personality (APA, 2010). Easy accessibility to violent programs and no legal monitoring from parents can be considered as one of the major reasons for which youth is victimized by the volatile media in a negative way.
Media and the programs shown over the media are generally considered as the source of entertainment for people of all backgrounds and of all age. However due to the violent nature of some programs the youth is getting affected by it in a negative way. Students are motivated to make their gangs, possess firearms inside the school premises and are motivated to follow what’s being shown in the media. Therefore it’s the sole responsibility of parents to make sure that their kids are not exposed to such programs that consist of violent content.
Reference: –
Wilson. B, 2008 ‘Media and Children’s Aggession, Fear, and Altruism’ Future of Children Vol 18, No. 1
Simmons. J, 2008, ‘Violent Youth: the censoring and public reception of the wild one and the black board jungle’, p. 381
Ybarra. M, ‘Linkages between Internet and Other media Violence with seriously Violent Behavior by youth’.
Science Daily, 2008, ‘Could Violence Video Games could reduce rather than increase violence’
American Psychology Association, 2010, ‘Violent Video Games May Increase Aggression in Some but not others’.
