Violent Media is Not Good for Kids

BlogPost_#3

How will you like to raise your children in a society where aggressiveness is more common? Or raising your only begotten child around children who are less sensitive to the pain and suffering of other children? Wait!. Before answering the above questions, consider this scenario: You woke up early in the morning to get your only child ready for school. You then took him or her to the bus stop to catch the bus. When the bus arrived, you gave him/her a lovey kiss and said: “see you later baby”. Out of love you stood, for few seconds, and watched the bus take-off before realizing that your domestic duties as a mom still awaits you. A few hours later you received a phone call from your child’s school saying “your child did not survive a bullet, during lunch, from an active young shooter. After a thorough investigation, it was known that the young shooter was a big fan of bloody “Call of Duty” and spend hours of hours playing that game and many other violent games. How will you feel?
       Children often learn from the environment around them, thus what they hear, the books they read, and even the games they play plays a major role in their lives. For instance, according to Gerard Jones, violent Marvel comics changed his life from dull to a person who is “unafraid of his desire and the world of disapproval, unhesitating and effective in action”.  It is believed that individual possesses a unique talent that needs to be accomplished. And in other to fulfill this dream you first must identify what that talent is by any ways and means. Gerard Jones identified his dreams through violence marvel and comic books and other violent media. The question is, how many children can identify their latent or career through violent media after they are so much addicted?
 An empirical study was conducted by a researcher, Douglas Gentile of Iowa state university. “The study found that 88 percent of the nation's children age 8 to 18 play video games. With 45 million children of that age in the country, the study will suggest that more than 3 million are addicted…” Donna st. George, A Washington Post writer, Said. 

      According to Gerard Jones, violent media “help children conquer the feelings of powerlessness that’s inevitably comes with being so young and small” and “give them the tools to master their rage”. Indeed, it's true; however, that is classified as an aggressive behavior. When children are exposed to a violent character(s) for a long period of time, they gather search courage and act as though they are the character in real life. As a result, act aggressively toward others. A research conducted by The American Psychological Association (APA)  “ …Indicate a consistent relation between violent video game use and heightened aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect reduced prosocial behavior, empathy, and sensitivity to aggression”
       I’m not saying violent entertainment is the main source of addiction and aggressiveness; however, after watching ths video 

and taking above statements into consideration I strongly disagree with Gerard Jones idea that “violent media is good for kids”.  

No matter who we are, irrespective of our status, always strive
 to raise children in a safe and sound environment. We try to raise kids in a society where there are peace and love. We try to raise kids in an environment where kids are not afraid to socialize with each other. Notice if all addicted kids act aggressively in the society, then within the next decade, most people will be living as monsters. 

Sources

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041902350.html

  http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.pdf