Essay on Negative Effect that Media Violence Has

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Perhaps nothing entertains more than fiction does. Sensational fantasy ignited by creative imagination and vivid presentation of details always plunge the audience into dreamland. The familiar is defamiliarized, and reality exaggerated. Ordinary mortals undertaking extra-ordinary fetes stimulate adrenaline upsurge into the overdrive: James Bond stares into the muzzle of a gun, and you tense as the other guy’s fingers caress the trigger. It is only a heartbeat away before his head is shattered by a bullet. But, in a span of a blink, as you wriggle in your seat waiting for the dreaded blood-chilling bang, Bond does the impossible; a slight tilt of the head out of the bullet’s path, a lightning knee jab hammered into the enemy’s groins, a whirling punch smashed into his jaws and the job is done. You’re left perplexed and equally astonished with admiration, and your kids cheering their hero. The next day, your teenage son is suspended from school for disfiguring a classmate’s nose.

It makes you enjoy the moment, kills stress and subdues boredom: it generally entertains. But again, it is the same infection which is killing our society.

Violence has been with mankind ever since Cain whacked his younger brother to death. But its adoration and admiration was ingrained into our psych, when Hollywood discovered nothing hooks like the sight of human blood and smithereens of flesh. We love it when a grenade is stuffed into someone’s mouth, and enjoy the scene of chopped legs and shriveled remains.

The effects of this culture of violence have become a daily reality. Media violence is fiction, but brainwashed teenagers want to live it. They want to walk and talk tough like Will Smith, be untouchable like Steven Seagal, and build muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hard drugs, they are made to believe, make tough men: Jean Claude van Damme is toughest after a roll. In the guise of entertainment, we have raised drug addicts. Before you know it, he sneaks with your gun to school and shoots a playmate.

Ours is a generation in which aggression has been normalized and lack of empathy immortalized, courtesy of a vibrant media industry preying on the natural instincts of man. In WWE, it is the man who batters the other most who wins the fans’ admiration. It is the reason why John Cena is a sensation in the ring, reason why a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt sells. Your kid jumps from the balcony and gets crippled, because he saw Rey Mysterio jump from a romp.

It is a culture that we need to change from, an infection that needs a diagnosis. Vulnerable groups must be protected, and our children be cushioned from its influence. The implicit message they get from films is that violence is acceptable, and should use it against their opponents (Freedman, 204). In last night’s bulletin, it was the parents from Boston who mourned their kid. Tomorrow it will be yours.