Should media be blamed for adolescent’s violence behavior
By Ilyssa Adelman
EDI 17 Psychology & Development of Adolescent Students
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March 25, 2009
I really enjoyed watching the movie “Tough Guise” in class yesterday. I think it is great that a movie like that exists. We always here about how adolescent girls are affected by the media but what we do not hear is how adolescent boys are affected. I feel, especially after watching the move, that guys are affected just as much as we women are. Think about while we are told we need to have perfect thin bodies, to be silent and weak, and in need of rescue and care they are taught to have “big” muscular bodies and to make sure they are powerful individuals, they are the rescuers and protectors of women.
However I do not think the media plays as large a role in incidents of violence as many think. Yes, in media men are usually the ones carrying the guns and shooting people, sometimes in scenes of mass destruction. Yet, I feel that if a child decides to bring a gun to school and open fire it is not because they saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in Terminator, it is because they have hit rock bottom and do not know what else to do.
In the case of the Columbine shooting, Harris and Klebold had been bullied for quite some time and had reached their breaking point. There are those who feel this act was a result of images the boys witnessed on television. This was not the result of media violence; this was the result of two boys being bullied to the point where they felt they had to take action against those who hurt them.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March 25, 2009
I really enjoyed watching the movie “Tough Guise” in class yesterday. I think it is great that a movie like that exists. We always here about how adolescent girls are affected by the media but what we do not hear is how adolescent boys are affected. I feel, especially after watching the move, that guys are affected just as much as we women are. Think about while we are told we need to have perfect thin bodies, to be silent and weak, and in need of rescue and care they are taught to have “big” muscular bodies and to make sure they are powerful individuals, they are the rescuers and protectors of women.
However I do not think the media plays as large a role in incidents of violence as many think. Yes, in media men are usually the ones carrying the guns and shooting people, sometimes in scenes of mass destruction. Yet, I feel that if a child decides to bring a gun to school and open fire it is not because they saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in Terminator, it is because they have hit rock bottom and do not know what else to do.
In the case of the Columbine shooting, Harris and Klebold had been bullied for quite some time and had reached their breaking point. There are those who feel this act was a result of images the boys witnessed on television. This was not the result of media violence; this was the result of two boys being bullied to the point where they felt they had to take action against those who hurt them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment