preview

Columbine High Tech Violence Research Paper

Decent Essays

Columbine High School massacre. Virginia Tech shootings. Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter. Umpqua Community College rampage. When someone hears any of these phrases, violent images come to mind. Since the first of these incidents, some questions have been, “Why did this happen? What caused these ‘kids’ to become violent?” One predominant thought has been that violence in media experienced as children, such as video games, could be the reason. Violence in media is common and accepted today. Escalation of violence has increased significantly in movies, video games, and even music videos for years now. This violent trend in media is becoming more and more popular with children, youth, and adults. For instance, the only violence articulated …show more content…

Many studies show that children are more prone to violence due to a child’s undeveloped brain. “Children who are regularly exposed to more violent media have an increased probability of behaving more aggressively in real life (Anderson).” Furthermore, children nowadays are exposed to excessive amounts of violence in media, increasing their risks of violence when older (Anderson). Anderson explains, children are likely to become “emotionally desensitized to the violence” being portrayed. Negative actions may happen without concern or acknowledgement that something is wrong (Anderson). According to Anderson, young children will be meaner and more aggressive. The more contact with media violence a child gets, the more likely they are to be aggressive, as he or she gets older …show more content…

Many people still have several questions they want answered, such as, is media violence actually affecting children or are children already prone to violence drawn to media violence? Some experts have shown short and long-term negative effects occur in children from watching violent media; however another group of experts have shown that media violence is only one of many risk factors leading to aggression developed in children. These two groups need to continue more research and go beyond that to find true solutions. Nevertheless, no sources were found to say that media violence has no influence on the increase in modern culture’s violent actions. The key to discovering the true correlation between violence in children and media violence is to continue research until a solution is

Get Access