Media's effects on us: positive or negative?

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by Ienzo, May 21, 2013.

  1. Ienzo ((̲̅ ̲̅(̲̅C̲̅r̲̅a̲̅y̲̅o̲̅l̲̲̅̅a̲̅( ̲̅̅((>

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    I have searched and I couldn't find this topic to my surprise : )

    I have been studying media's affects on antisocial behaviour, pro social behaviour and aggression and have found the topic quite fascinating. By media this includes video games, tv programs and films. Some people say people who play violent video games/watch violence etc. are more likely to become violent themselves while others say quite the opposite.

    Lots of research has been done into these topics, a lot of it contradictory so I'm wondering what your thoughts are:

    Does the media have a negative effect on someone's behaviour or a positive one, where it might let them unleash violent tendencies?
     
  2. Patman Bof

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    There is this thread, though it' s more specific : http://kh-vids.net/threads/its-just-a-movie-its-just-a-movie.138349/

    As for the good or bad impact medias can have at large, well, I' d say they can be cathartic (at least they can be cathartic for me) and/or informative. Can they give us bad ideas or make us aware of parts of our psyche that were latent up until now (and might have been better off left unexplored) ? Sure, but then so can life in general.

    I look at it this way : medias just give us sensory inputs, but what really matters is what we do with that information, how we decode it. Can the medias impact the way we analyze informations, or our behavior at large ? Yes, just as any other sensory input can, and the younger you are the more influenceable you are.

    However, although it makes sense to filter what you do or don' t want your kids to see to some degree, once they' re late teenagers it' s useless if you ask me. Whatever it is you don' t want them to see chances are they' ll see it anyway, if they haven' t already that is. You' d better make sure they' ve aquired all the rational tools they need to analyze what life can throw at them by now, last time I checked the ostrich policy didn' t exactly qualify as a stellar one.
     
  3. ShibuyaGato Transformation

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    Well, since the results of studies are all varied, I honestly believe that this comes down to the opinion of the individual. From what I've seen, media can affect us all differently; it comes down to both the individual taking in the media and the media itself. For instance, a five-year-old watching a cartoon may perceive it to be fact while the parents know it to be a work of fiction. Different people react differently to certain stimuli, and while age is a major factor, there are always other things like illnesses (autism is a fair example).

    This also plays a role. If you haven't been taught to adequately determine fact from fiction, ordinary things could rub you the wrong way. It just goes to show how many factors have to be taken into consideration when talking about things like this.
    Restricting games like Call of Duty won't do much to help if parents aren't willing to put in the effort, or even if the kid refuses to realize that it's just a game.
     
  4. Sara Tea Drinker

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    I think it depends. I mean, I have seen where there are copycats who follow an example.

    For instance, when the Dark Knight Rises shooting happened which was a massive tragedy and got a ton of media attention, there was a guy in my state who was carrying a ton of guns in the trunk of his car and told the cops when he was pulled over that he was seeing the same movie. That's one negative side effect. But at the same time, a tragedy can have something good come out of it like incentive to change laws or even just spur people to help the victims. Boston has millions of dollars coming in nationwide for the bombing to help the victims and their families.

    There's also the fact that it might lead to a certain mentality. In the U.S. right now there's a hero mentality. Where you have to go and be the hero. That's great when there's something going on and you can stop it without killing everyone in the process. At the same time, it can lead to you killing a kid in the movie theater who's waving a toy gun around, taking the shooting as an example.

    It's how you interpret it and what you do about it on whether it's positive or negative.
     
  5. Ienzo ((̲̅ ̲̅(̲̅C̲̅r̲̅a̲̅y̲̅o̲̅l̲̲̅̅a̲̅( ̲̅̅((>

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    Very true, there have been real life example like the Columbine massacre where the killers were actually heard (they were videoing it) saying "Just like on Doom" or some violent game of the time. Of course, not everyone who plays a violent video game becomes violent and not every violent person has played a video game/seen a violent film so there must be other factors involved. Also, it's thought that perhaps they do the opposite, it relieves pent up anger and aggression that people would otherwise use in real life. I have found this to be the case with me but I do remember a time when I was obsessed with Bleach and I was watching it a lot and I found myself getting angry quicker and feeling more like physically hurting someone if they annoyed me which wasn't normally the case. So I suppose it could go either way.

    The other argument is, does antisocial mediums make people more antisocial or does it just attract antisocial people the most? And by antisocial I mean things like aggression, swearing and things and not just staying away from society.
     
  6. burnitup Still the Best 1973

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    If anyone is letting media direct them to commit atrocities, that says more about their mental state than the media itself. And that's all I have to say about that. That and anyone who believes "video games, movies, tv, music = future mass murderer" is a dumbass.
     
  7. Menos Grande Kingdom Keeper

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    Agree! I don't belive in the power of media of "brainwahsing people", but even if we were to belive it, it isn't something that happens that often enough to be a rule so we can regulate if something is or isn't ok! Is not like "we know that X thing makes people do Y" is that "X made ONE INDIVIDUAL do Y" so... Maybe a movie or game did someone kill another , but another person "trigger" can be bumping his toe in a desk or something as trivial as this..
    In the end we must take responsabilities for our actions!
    There is a good article about this: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet
    In this article the guy says about the year that he didn't go online, he had a lot of problems that we associate with abuse of internet , but at the end he discovered that even without it he would come back to his bad habits.. so is a "internal problem" that he can't handle, the internet is just a escape, but anything else could be.
     
  8. Ars Nova Just a ghost.

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    Can media enhance abnormal or harmful behavior? Sure. Is it responsible? Hardly. Addiction runs in my family; my father was an alcoholic himself. I know that substances would likely be harmful for me and everyone around me...but it's on my head if I choose to use them. I know the risks. Likewise, if you're an unstable or violent person, and you play a video game that frustrates you or enables those tendencies, you're feeding that impulse and you should damn well know better. On the other hand, you can't know better unless somebody teaches you - or, by the grace of Eden, you learn on your own before any irreparable damage is done.

    Media can absolutely manipulate a person, but violent and antisocial behavior are a small fraction of the possibilities. And I stress small. Those manipulations may be unpredictable to a degree, but they're there by design, not accident. Were I a more cynical person, I'd say that's the marketing department's entire job: convincing you to like sh#% you really don't want or need in your life. And a dude who watches a movie and becomes a serial killer will probably be too busy to buy the DVD, to put it one way.

    To teach our kids to be wary of those manipulations, we must first recognize when we are being manipulated. In order to teach, we first have to learn. But once that's done, media turns out to be relatively harmless, all things considered.