Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Role of Violence in the World of Media

               Everyday we spend entangled in the wide reaching web of media, we are exposed to some level of violence. Whether is a over done action film that has cars blowing up or a twitter vine of someone injuring someone else, violence in all forms has become heavily integrated into our society. That being said, I am left to wonder what forms of violent exposure are most responsive and how the desensitization of our society toward violence has and will have an effect on this world.
             
              Violence in media has reached a point now where its hard for people to even see that smaller forms of violent exposure are still prevalent. This is likely due in large part to the fact that now a days there are so many ways intense violence reaches us through media. Violent video games, especially first person shooter games, glorify violence and war and are extremely popular everywhere around the world. Games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo all are centered around violent conquests or missions and what is especially concerning is that more and more children are playing these games from a young age. The question that I have then is what effect may a game that graphically simulates a battlefield and war have on a young mind? When I was eight years old seeing an R rated movie with some violence was one of the coolest things imaginable. Now eight year olds  can put themselves behind the gun, and they equate that violent experience with the positive rush of playing a video game. How might this increased expose effect the new generation?

            Beyond the obvious forms of violence we are exposed to such as films and video games, there are more subtle violent exposures that we may not even realize. For instance, twitter and other social media forums promote bullying and videos that feature violent confrontations or disputes can often find their way into your feed. These forms of violence are things we can gloss over or even take humor in if the violent action does not come in the form of an aggressive act. For example a video of a friend tripping one of their friends as a prank. This is a violent action that could hurt the person but when put on social media people justify the action as being a prank, and in doing so desensitize their mind to that kind of violent action. News stations both on the radio and televisions are also constantly spewing information about violent news or actions, so much so that people no longer have such a large reaction to news of violence or to extreme instances of real world violence. All this violence being crammed down our throats constantly has to affect the ay we view violence both in the real world and outside of reality. The question I have is when and how might we see the effect of this desensitization toward violence?

1 comment:

  1. I would go as far as to say that media not only desensitizes us to violence, but glorifies it. You touched on this when you mentioned how video games make hurting people into a fun, rewarding activity. Social media also promotes violence in and of itself, as well as finding humor in violent actions. Accounts such as "30 second fights" are not funny, they're just fights. 30 seconds worth! Two people beating each other in front of a swarm of filming onlookers. The fact that these accounts are so popular - and the fact that people film fights instead of breaking them up - shows the extent to which we've been desensitized to (and turned on to) violence.

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