Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Violence envisioned and violence viewed
What do you think about violence on television and in other entertainment media? According to your own experience, would you also say that it is attractive and therefore easy to advertise, but does not really give us what we would hope for? If so, what does this say about human psychology, and do the psychology experiments reported here seem convincing/valid? Does it also show us one down side of capitalism?
Violence is everywhere around us. We cannot avoid it sometimes, because it is presented on internet, on the television, on advertisements. Basically it is everywhere in the modern world. The reason why we can find violence presented everywhere around us, is that people enjoy violence, or at least they think they do.
ReplyDeleteAs it is proven in the study by Indiana University scholars Andrew Weaver and Matthew Kobach, who found out that the students were enticed by descriptions of violent scenes, but actually enjoyed the programs more when those elements were edited out. This proves that our mind actually demands the violence. People want to see something rare, forbidden. I think that violence on television is similar to sex on television. Sex is also very presented and propagandized. You can see it everywhere, just as violence. It is also something which is demanded by people; even though they may not realize it. A good example is for example the new television show: Hotel Paradise. It is a very pointless, simple television show which is mostly about sex, fun and relationships. However, people do watch it. People really are interested in this bizarre stuff. Therefore, I think that violence is very similarly presented on television as sex.
I find the experiment very convincing, even though I didn’t know that people choose to see something violent, and then they actually prefer more the one which isn’t that violent. It really surprised me.
In my opinion it is definitely not good that violence is propagandized on television and on other media that much. People may not realize it but it impinges on their psyche. It subconsciously changes your mind. It makes you more aggressive and more irritable and you don’t even recognize these small changes. Another disadvantage of violence presented on television, is that it often happens that when a child is watching the television it sees some violence, and because it is small and doesn’t realize many consequences it can do something stupid. For example there was a case, when a child watched something on television which had violent elements in it, and the child then jumped from the window. Children don’t realize many things, and they often believe the things they see on the television.
Violence on television has many negative aspects on the society. I think it shouldn’t be presented that much, and especially not during the day, so the small children will not see it. We should protect our children from violence on television. It is not prosperous for them, and it isn’t prosperous for us either.
I agree with the first couple of points you have made in your comment, namely, that people are seemingly more interested in discovering new bizarre content. Evidently, one way of doing so is actively seeking out violence in media. It is the unobserved and unseen that is the main impetus behind this search. Perhaps, the reason why people don’t get as much excitement from violence in television, though, is because of that – the companies have failed to meet the viewer’s expectations, for the viewer has already been exposed to so much violence the trivial scenes no longer manage to fascinate him.
DeleteOn the other hand, though, I disagree with the claim that television violence negatively affects our mentality. I, for one, don’t feel like ripping someone’s head off after seeing the last Rambo movie. However, in the case of people that do so, though, the problem hardly ever originates from violence, but rather from their own twisted notion of reality.
Violence has many causes, including exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighborhood and a tendency to see other people's actions as hostile even when they're not. It is true that violence is not rare in streets or in people homes, however I don’t share the opinion of violence being everywhere. It may be true that the level of violence and criminality is increasing globally, but still, violence is not everywhere. I think that violence being seen on television is not good for people, mainly teenagers. They can be negatively influenced by movies, games or other forms of entertainment showing violence, and may become violent themselves. There is evidence that violent entertainment increases the aggressive behavior of people. This may be a threat for society. The level of criminality and murder is rising. I definitely think that this is linked to the increased amount of aggression and violence people may see on television or in games.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don’t like violent scenes in movies. Naturally, the scenes are needed sometimes to create an action atmosphere in the movie, but often times I have the feeling that they are too long and pointless. I am glad that the researchers of the journal Aggressive Behavior claimed that “violent content seldom increases enjoyment” since neither do I enjoy it. Violent movies may seem attractive because of the action and adrenaline they might cause, but in reality the enjoyment of the real movie is not as satisfying. I actually think that violence is easy to market because of the thrilling and action parts that seem attractive. I share the opinion of most people that don’t find scenes where people are attaching and shooting themselves as pleasant. The scenes seem unnatural, and sometimes are even hard to look at. The problem with violence comes when people consider the aggression that they see on TV as normal and find it pleasant or enjoyable.
I personally disagree with Nina and agree with Barbora saying that, violence is everywhere. It’s just that we cannot distinguish between violence and normal behavior. Actually, what is violence? According to the World Health Organization violence is “physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm or deprivation”. Moreover, the reason why violence is everywhere is simply, because we are animals. Some people may not want to hear it, but we are. The only difference between us and animals is that, they have to fight for their lives, hunt and fight for a mate. The modern society is more civilized than animals and they don’t have to hunt and kill to survive because the butcher does it for them. Mainly, people don’t like violence, and if they don’t have to be violent they are not. For example, our ancestors had to be violent to survive so they were violent. Furthermore, maybe, if animals did not have to be violent, they would not be.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Andrew Weaver and Matthew Kobach, Indiana University scholars “Participants were more likely to choose to watch programs with violent descriptions than they were programs with nonviolent descriptions, Enjoyment of actual viewing, on the other hand, was lower for viewing violent programs.“. The reason why, is that, even though people don’t like violence they are in a way interested in it and it gives them adrenalin. Maybe, because, they are not used to see killing and stabbing in normal life and they are curious. Moreover, it’s different to see it in a movie or when you see it in real life.
For example, yesterday I saw a dead body in front of my house. It was horrible and shocking because I had to pass the person. It was an old man covered with a black plastic sheet. I still have the picture in my mind. However, seeing the same think in a movie would be totally different. First of all, I would not be so shocked and sad afterwards because I am and the whole society is used to violence in media.
@Barbora: I really dislike the last paragraph of your comment and I disagree with it. I don't believe that virtual violence has any impact on psyche. Other who support your point of view would probably argument with “Columbine high” incident, where two students (which were fans of DOOM – a very violent video game) brought guns to school and killed several people. This, if anything, is just one of the best demonstrations of PHEPH fallacy (as seen in TOK classes). I doubt that there is any scientific or at least half reliable study on this topic that concludes that virtual violence has any negative impact on personality. Oh, and for your example of kid jumping out of the window: who was it? When? Where? Where can I read about it? Unless you can answer those, I don't consider that argument as valid. So please, next time do some research and do not let your answer be based on dogmas.
ReplyDeleteThere are many studies which show that violence in television and other media has a negative influence on people and especially young children. How can you think that all the violence in television and video games actually does not have a negative influence on us? I am not saying that I do not watch these types of movies, because I really enjoy them sometimes, but I still think that it is not good for our psyche. It influences us to be more violent and it subconsciously makes us more aggressive. It is presented in all kinds of media. It is almost impossible to prevent yourself from violence.
Delete@Nina:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Nina’s claims about how violence can threaten our societies. The new technology world, in which we live in, provides many sources from which we can get influenced by the violent attitudes present. As already mentioned, there are many video, computer or play station games, or television shows advertising violent behavior. I also agree that the violence is easier to be advertised than normal behaviors. It wouldn’t be interesting for people to watch or play something naturally normal, so usually people are searching for some differences and changes. Though, the consequences of similar behavior as in the “models” are then more than obvious to occur. Guessing what will happen later, or how the people in a television show for example will behave can be sometimes fun. Even though, these games or television shows where violence is present are designed to be for fun, it is not always necessarily accepted. In any kind of view, people should be more careful with the use of violence.
@Nina:
ReplyDeleteI think the basic problem is in that violence is easy to market. It is because people seek for it, as has the research shown that people prefer descriptions containing violence. The part about whether they actually enjoy it or not is irrelevant. Though, I am as well glad that most people actually turn out not to find pleasure in watching violent scenes in films. But again, the problem remains in broadcast and promotion of violence as well as passion (I mean sex) on television, in advertisements and, a good point, in video games. Therefore, it soon appears to creep behind every corner waiting to affect children, the most vulnerable to its wicked clutches.
@Margarita:
Is it really what you think that people (not animals, for now) wouldn’t behave violently if they didn’t have to? I take your point that people are animals. But I think there is one extremely important difference, thus why the comparison grows more figurative, and it is that people are not at all obliged to be aggressive – and they are. Indeed, they film it, broadcast and promote, even to small children.
I agree that it is partly the interest in seeing what is unusual, maybe intimate in some way or even adrenaline-provoking, which makes violence desirable in market. But the statement the author made, that our interest might be caused by seeing a perspective of action and drama, should be given a second thought. Even though Margarita’s reason seems more appealing to me, I would like to believe that we actually are not the bloodthirsty creatures.