Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
I think you put it together quite well, Sangetsu.
I don't think it is the media that desensitizes us to violence, but violence desensitizes us to violence. Although we have access to violent and realistic video games, very few are not able to distinguish the games from reality.
Compared to many civilizations throughout history, ours is pretty violence free.
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I would agree that it is not the media, only to the extent that the media is only dramatizing what is already in society. They are to blame for their part in the increased saturation levels and glorification of it.
I think the numbers of children who cannot distinguish between the appropriateness of violence as a response, or means to an end increases, as the age and socialization levels decrease. Unfortunately younger and younger children are being babysat by video games instead of interacting with people, so there is less and less input from other non-violence sources.
The result is the violent, hitting and kicking fits I witness from children from 4-8 yrs old in the hall outside my office when they are told "no" when they scream till their voices give out for candy from the vending machine. Years ago you might see and hear that once in a while, but these days its the norm. When they don't get their way they resort to what little violence they can extert. There size and strength seem to be the only limiting factors - not discipline, not rationality. We are talking the old "terrible twos", these are children we once considered "old enough to know better".
Just who and when are they going to be taught that the entertaining destruction of people and property they are amused by daily is not acceptable in real life. The lesson is being taught later and later in life - if at all.