ARE we becoming too remote from reality?

[dogsbody70]

elsewhere there is a discussion about the way some of us received the news of the attack o 9/11.

this makes me wonder about the affect of us all being so exposed to wars and earthquakes, floods etc etc.

WHen the war in IRAQ started our televisions showed us close up pictures of what was happening.

I believe we become innoculated about so many tragedies that are shown on TV and in many ways somehow separate ourselves from the tragedy. we become immune.

Years ago there was a programme showing how Japanese youth who watched or played violent games on PLAY station etc were becoming aggressive and actually reenacting the parts of aggressors.

I do believe that watching or playing many of the violent games definitely affects those who indulge.

How do they separate fantasy from reality.

Violence begets Violence.


there was a recent experiment shown on tv where young children in school were shown certain types of videos or games, one type pretty innocuous, the other more violent.

The test was to see how those children would react in certain situations.

Simply, when the individual child was interviewed, the "teacher" accidentally on purpose would allow a book to slip to the floor. would the child pick up the book and return it to the teacher?


THe general outcome was that the child who had watched a non violent film or played non violent games-- would bend down to return the book, but most of the others ignored the book and carried on. In other words-- they did not care about the fallen book or think they should have picked it up.

I believe in certain circusmstance we do become isolated and removed and too easily lose our sense of what is right or what is wrong and the feeling of helpfulness disregarded.

THis may sound like an odd experiment-- but we all can become anaesthetised against reality-- so unlikely to intervene if really we should go and help somebody in trouble.

Subconscious is very powerful and the MEDIA uses it to an enormous extent.

[Mazikeen]

I suppose it depends on the amount of TV you watch? I really don't watch it that much.

[Jaydelart]

I believe it depends on the kind of person you are; what kind of life you've lived, and what kind influences you are exposed to. Subconscious dealings only have a general affect on people and do not affect everyone to the same level.

I don't have time to type much, at the moment, but psychology intrigues me immensely.

[Mazikeen]

Originally Posted by Jaydelart

I believe it depends on the kind of person you are; what kind of life you've lived, and what kind influences you are exposed to. Subconscious dealings only have a general affect on people and do not affect everyone to the same level.

I don't have time to type much, at the moment, but psychology intrigues me immensely.

Haha, yep, psychology is interesting to me too. Isn't it fun finding out the ways our minds work? I find it absolutely thrilling. What you say about it depends on the kind of person you are, the life you've lived, and the influences you've been exposed to. Let's go with what you're talking about.

[dogsbody70]

the human mind is endlessly fascinating.
There is the subject of nature versus nurture. In the case of those who are brought up as adopteess or similar where they grow up with a family with no genetic connection to themselves.

How dominant is the human gene?

I feel it is very dominant but all too easily we can be influenced by outside event-- whatever we are exposed to.

WHen I was a child, the wireless was only heard for the ten minute news broadcast. We did not know what was happening in the outside world. Most of us did not have a telephone--- we were more conscious of our own local circle of life--not the outside world-- apart from the war and the bombings of course.

In a way we were protected by the lack of information. Nowadays we are bombarded with so many other influences.


the person we turn out to be has been moulded in a way-- but how do we remain independent with the ability to go our own way--make our own decisions.


THe media these days influences us in so many ways.

How do we not follow the crowd and remain our own person.

When we see some tragedy on the TV-- does it effect us as much NOW as it would have done before so much exposure to these happenings around the world?

[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

The test was to see how those children would react in certain situations.

Simply, when the individual child was interviewed, the "teacher" accidentally on purpose would allow a book to slip to the floor. would the child pick up the book and return it to the teacher?


THe general outcome was that the child who had watched a non violent film or played non violent games-- would bend down to return the book, but most of the others ignored the book and carried on. In other words-- they did not care about the fallen book or think they should have picked it up.

I believe in certain circusmstance we do become isolated and removed and too easily lose our sense of what is right or what is wrong and the feeling of helpfulness disregarded.

While I agree with the premise, I am not entirely in agreement with the assessment of this experiment's results. There are those who become desensitized and would ignore something such as the fallen book, but there is another cause and effect to consider. Those who have been besieged with violence (media or otherwise) can also develop the opposite response - one of heightened sensitivity which could make a student overly cautious of others. In such case the child may have been wary of doing anything other than the response they saw from the authority figure - the teacher. The teacher ignored it, so outwardly they did the same rather than risk disapproval.

Neither of those causes, when taken to an extreme is a desired human response.

[Ronin4hire]

I think you will be interested in this documentary dogsbody.

Its called "Militainment Inc"

Militainment, Inc. – Militarism and Pop Culture | Watch Free Documentary Online

Militainment, Inc. offers a fascinating, disturbing, and timely glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and “reality television” in its glamorization of war. Mobilizing an astonishing range of media examples – from news anchors’ idolatry of military machinery to the impact of government propaganda on war reporting – the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle?

And how does presenting war as entertainment affect the ability of citizens to evaluate the necessity and real human costs of military action? The film is broken down into nine sections, each between 10 and 20 minutes in length, allo wing for in-depth classroom analysis of individual elements of this wide-ranging phenomenon.

[JasonTakeshi]

I've seen so much sh*t on the internet that I guess I've become apathetic.

[manganimefan227]

I think so. Everryday I see atleast one example of how addicting texting in all of it's forms have become.

Yes, I do worry the negative behaiviours I see, (from myself as well) seem to come from TV or the internet.

[spoonybard]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

While I agree with the premise, I am not entirely in agreement with the assessment of this experiment's results. There are those who become desensitized and would ignore something such as the fallen book, but there is another cause and effect to consider. Those who have been besieged with violence (media or otherwise) can also develop the opposite response - one of heightened sensitivity which could make a student overly cautious of others. In such case the child may have been wary of doing anything other than the response they saw from the authority figure - the teacher. The teacher ignored it, so outwardly they did the same rather than risk disapproval.

Neither of those causes, when taken to an extreme is a desired human response.

This. There is always something deeper under the surface; it's too easy to use the media and/or other things as a scapegoat for whatever is going on instead of actually finding out why this happened. I play "violent" videogames.The first game I played was Mortal Kombat, and I was four!!! The only thing it did for me was get me interested in martial arts, though even at that age, I knew that you can't rip your face off and blow fire at people. XD XD XD

What some people are too ignorant to see when it comes to games at least is that we play them because, if it is something like GTA, we are quite aware that we will get arrested if we do the great majority of the stuff you can do in those games. Hell, you can even get arrested in GTA!!! XD Also, I'm sure most people playing mafia related games know that it's probably not as glamorous or whatever in real life, and it's not something they actually want to be involved in either.

Basically, the media has nothing to do with it, rather the person's morality; in the end, it is your choice whether you actually do something or not.