Why aren't we all mass murderers?
“If it is violent movies and video games caused that kid to
go out and kill people, then how come we all aren’t going out and killing
people?”
The rhetorical question is a false one. The question isn’t “why aren’t we all?” The question is “how much closer are we all to reacting in a more violent fashion?” Life is about degrees, and violent media – movies, video games, images in magazines, the nightly news – can move us to feel less safe and believe that others would react more violently. The lack of safety leads to fear, and a more violent reaction to a situation than would be necessary is sanctioned by what we believe are societal norms.
If media had no effect on our states of minds, our habits or our attitudes, product placement in movies and advertising would be a terrible business to be in. Corporations harness the effects of images, celebrities and movies every day to change the spending habits of viewers. To believe that those same things that we view on a regular basis do not affect our mindset, what we believe is happening in the world and how we should process that is to be naïve at best, misleading or at worst, untruthful.
The question is not one of absolutes. Instead, the interactions of those media portrayals with what a person is taught at home and through those around him or her can affect the way that person chooses to interact with the world.
Until we can address the effects of media and its portrayal of violence and women, we can expect more of what we have been getting. As society disintegrates into bits and bytes in the form of texts and tweets, people become more isolated from and less able to empathize with each other. It is our relationships and empathy that allow us to withstand the effects of the media. Being surrounded by good people insulates us from the portrayal of everyone else as just looking out for number one.
Someone who does not have that insulating layer is going to be more likely to follow the path of the media that he or she interacts with; yet, we will all feel the effects of those ideas that we allow into our minds, regardless of where they come from.
The rhetorical question is a false one. The question isn’t “why aren’t we all?” The question is “how much closer are we all to reacting in a more violent fashion?” Life is about degrees, and violent media – movies, video games, images in magazines, the nightly news – can move us to feel less safe and believe that others would react more violently. The lack of safety leads to fear, and a more violent reaction to a situation than would be necessary is sanctioned by what we believe are societal norms.
If media had no effect on our states of minds, our habits or our attitudes, product placement in movies and advertising would be a terrible business to be in. Corporations harness the effects of images, celebrities and movies every day to change the spending habits of viewers. To believe that those same things that we view on a regular basis do not affect our mindset, what we believe is happening in the world and how we should process that is to be naïve at best, misleading or at worst, untruthful.
The question is not one of absolutes. Instead, the interactions of those media portrayals with what a person is taught at home and through those around him or her can affect the way that person chooses to interact with the world.
Until we can address the effects of media and its portrayal of violence and women, we can expect more of what we have been getting. As society disintegrates into bits and bytes in the form of texts and tweets, people become more isolated from and less able to empathize with each other. It is our relationships and empathy that allow us to withstand the effects of the media. Being surrounded by good people insulates us from the portrayal of everyone else as just looking out for number one.
Someone who does not have that insulating layer is going to be more likely to follow the path of the media that he or she interacts with; yet, we will all feel the effects of those ideas that we allow into our minds, regardless of where they come from.