Violence and Todays TV and Video Games - Essay Example

Personal Response Today TV and video games are responsible for addicting our children to that extent where children consider education and cultural morals secondary, whereas video games are considered as primary concerns. Technology on one hand has created awareness; on the other hand it is trying to snatch innocence from our children by constantly giving exposure in the form of cruel and violent video games and adult programs. I think the fault is not with younger generation but with our limited visions for it is the responsibility of parents to keep an eye on their children. It is our perspective that leads our children to confront the negative aspects of technology. In my perspective if parents despite dealing in a harsh manner, communicate to their children wisely, they not only can manage their children stay away from such activities but can also help in developing a healthy lifestyle devoid of violent video games. These are the steps, which I think should be taken by the parents in order to guide the children towards a positive approach: 1. Parents should take care while communicating with their children, and according to child psychology parents should never impose any decision on children. That does not mean that parents should set their children free but they should explain every do's and don'ts to their children. It would be better to have friendly discussions with children and then softly explain your view to them along with the pros and cons of TV and video games. Tell them how video games can affect their personalities, how and in what ways these programs can cause harm to them and what would be the consequences of continuing these activities in near future. 2. Try not to negate a child's opinion about playing games or watching TV. Let him finish while discussing views, observe his attitude and accept his opinion open heartedly. 3. Act like you have understood child's opinion, appreciate it and while appreciating gradually draw his attention towards the negative aspects of video games, like "anger" and "violence". At the same time you can also mention and discuss about his current grade and activities at school and how such games is affecting his studies. (All should be done patiently in a soft spoken manner as the utmost thing is to gain the trust of child) 4. Draw his attention towards other useful activities and concerns to do like sports, music, picnic etc. This would help in maintaining a warm and friendly attitude. (Remember the most successful children are those whose parents are more like friends to them) 5. In most cases children can be controlled by adopting this attitude but if (in rare cases) they are unable to manage, parents should straight forwardly prohibit them from involving in such activities. Children should not be allowed to watch TV all the time or playing video games. Violent games are not only harmful to children psychologically but they also damage sensitive areas of brain tissues affecting long-term memory of a child. As we can see today video games not only comprise of games alone but also they have small movie clips in it, which often shows violence and aggression thereby inspiring and motivating the child towards such attitude. Now, who is responsible for such games, which portray pain and aggression Who to blame; society, parents or technology. I have seen "Max Payne" the game, which involves all the characteristics mentioned above. Children love to play and indulge in those games, which the technology has gifted us, so the best technique to save a child is to make him aware of the consequences beforehand. I think video games are like drugs, once you get in it becomes very difficult to remain aloof from drugs. In conclusion I would like to suggest that parents whether by hook or by crook should not allow their children in any circumstances to spoil their personalities by getting addicted to these drugs. Might be this is the way we can save our child, save a generation. Name: ____________ Course ID: ________ Student ID: ________ "Do TV and video games influence children behavior especially aggression, and violence" Today video games are considered as one of the most popular forms of electronic graphic media which is hijacked in order to influence those little minds which are still in their developing phases. The aim behind such popular video games is to addict and influence the child to the extent where he feels it necessary to purchase from a variety of animating character plays. Examples of such popular games are Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Max Payne, which not only teach aggression and rage, but also spread violence and aggression so that children attract towards the games simply by the word of mouth of their friends. According to a research, video games are of two types, the one, which are harmless, and the other in which the child possesses full control to harm other characters of the game. TV and video games whether of any kind leave a deep impact on child's attitude and if watched or played continuously, can influence a child's personality. Now, it depends upon as to what kind of programs and games the child is addicted to. If we consider action and violent games, we would come to know that "in many of today's most popular games, harming other characters is the main activity through which killing occurs at a high rate. Research by Children in (2001) found that 89% of video games contain some violent content and that about half included violence toward other characters that resulted in serious injuries or death". (Cicchirillo, 2005, p. 435) According to Gentile and Anderson's (2003) observations and analysis video games' violent content is utilized and can be seen in nearly 80% of most popular and branded 'Nintendo' and 'Sega' video games. Now a days 'Playstation' with different versions has captured more than half of the U.S kids, which despite decreasing every year are enormously increasing for the action and violence which 'Playstation' offers, no other game presents. "The interesting thing is that Nintendo and Sega captures 80% of US children, which are often found in some type of aggression activity, ranging from sports aggression which is subjected to 48% of violence to criminal victimization which possesses 52% of violence". (Cicchirillo, 2005) So, it is evident that children imitate aggressive attitude from the most influential factors. The most amazing fact revealed by Dietz is that in most demanded games, "the violence is directed towards another human-like character and is often quite graphic. He also noted that many of the games included violence as the key used to accomplish goals. Furthermore, socially acceptable aggression is shown in 27% of the video games". (Cicchirillo, 2005) The most dilemmatic situation, which is confronted by many of the parents and teachers, is the role of destructive weapon in the upbringing of children, like today no violent game is completed without the concept of gun or firearms. "Guns availability is one end of the youth violence problem" (Boyson et al, 2004) and the other end lies in the fact that they are virtually available through video games. "The games 15 years ago were much less violent in nature (e.g., Activision Boxing, Berzerk) than are the killing games available in today's market". (Smith et al, 2003) and what would be the reason of being unviolent when today's fast pace technology requires every product to be marketed on television media, and in the case of developing personalities why TV should lack behind when it seems so easy to influence young minds through colorful advertisements and marketing techniques; this also attracts children when they found the advertisement of latest video games on TV. Research on video game use indicates, "Children as well as adults actively participates and involve in playing video games. A report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that a majority of 2 to 18 year old children in the U.S.A. have access to video game technology in their home. Nearly three fourths of all families surveyed have at least one video game console, and one third of all children in this age group have a game system in their own room". (Lachlan et al, 2005) Another recent research by Lachlan suggests "on average, boys spend about 11 hours a week playing video games, while girls spend about 6 hours doing so". (Lachlan et al, 2005) The affection between video games and children examines the relationship between "game playing and aggressive tendencies, which after analysis of 10-14 years age of children revealed a positive relationship between preferring violent games and aggressive behavior. Other studies have supported this positive relationship between exposure to violent games and aggression with both child and adult samples". (Lachlan et al, 2005) Research and studies have compared those children players who play computer games most frequently with those who play less often. Heavy video game players are found to be less academically successful, more aggressive, or less sociable than those who play less often. Such findings are particularly likely when the focus of research is on video arcade games, rather than home personal computers (PCs) or video game systems. Similarly, research on television violence indicates that contextual setting of violent actors, whether positive or negative is seen and appreciated by the audience, whether the audience is adults or kids. Even in some cases the influence is so deep that audience takes no longer to adopt the aggressive behavior of their favorite actors. If this were the case of adults, how long would it take for children to adopt the impressive powerful features of their favorite graphic characters, whether the character is real or virtual It makes no difference as long as the characters hold a firearm in their hand and are able to leave a deep impact on the little minds. Video game effects on children's attitude (Reactions and Feelings) According to Cicchirillo et al, "Not only do video games contain violent material, but higher levels of aggressive thoughts and behaviors have been observed among individuals who play these types of games". (Cicchirillo, 2005, p. 435) Violent games are responsible for resurrecting a concern about a culture of violence. Playing violent games is often correlated with lower school performance, more aggression, delinquency, and behavioral and emotional problems as those who prefer violent video games are most likely to be above average in aggression, and show other characteristics of aggressive people; namely, poorer school performance, more delinquency, and so on. Children reaction towards video games, the context of violent images and the circumstances in which they are experienced play a crucial role in their appeal. The objective of children is to experience pleasure from violent images, sounds and background music so before playing the game, children's intention is to feel relatively safe and secure in their surroundings. Example can be considered from the latest violent game "Max Payne", whose influences can be seen from the fact that children who play this game consider themselves as the main character named 'Max Payne'. The game casts such a spell on the young minds that children can't stop themselves from being dressed and act like Payne. "Aggressive Cognition" is the term used to describe such children, which presents the following characteristics among those children who are heavy users of video games: Readiness to see violence; Approval of violent actions seen in the programme; Enjoyment of the violence seen; Evaluation of the programme; Emotional responsiveness; Absorption in the programme; Detachment while watching; Identification with the programme's chief characters; In addition to imitation, there is another concern besides games that refers to television violence having adverse effects on children's social behavior by weakening socially learned inhibitions against behaving aggressively. One of the reasons for active involvement includes frustration, depression or some kind of psychological cognition. Reasoning from this formulation as high self-aggression in children is seen as a result from being severely frustrated in their home environments and also prevented from openly attacking their frustrater. The self-aggression tendencies as found in the children were higher in those who were heavy users of watching television or playing frustrated video games. The issues that have most concerned researchers, educators, and parents have both the possibility that children imitate the aggressive behavior they see on television and that viewing violence may weaken children's inhibitions leading to a general increase in aggression. One way of studying these issues has been to do an experimental laboratory study. Typically, in these studies, a child is randomly assigned to see either a short film portraying violence, a nonviolent film, or no film. After viewing the film the child is allowed to play, usually alone, with toys which are the same as or similar to those seen in the film. Observers who are not visible to the child record the child's behavior, especially any aggressive behavior. The results of such experimental studies have been quite clear: Children who watch a film with aggressive content imitate the portrayed aggression and furthermore, they show an increase in other aggressive behaviors. Thus, their behavior is more aggressive than that of children who view either a neutral film or no film at all. As children grow older an elaboration of the cognitive skills they use to deal with the world occurs. Thus, along with cognitive skills, experience leads to increasing knowledge but in negative aspect. When children sit in front of television they use their knowledge about the world and their cognitive skills to make sense of TV programs. Now, if a child already possesses an aggressive attitude he may watch TV in search of sharpening his negative cognition so that he may learn more and develop his skills towards violence. So, TV may have an impact on both children's world knowledge and cognitive skills, which at times decode the information into a more understandable format for the child. So, what the child gets is the information processing demands of television as a medium of communication, the processing proclivities of child viewers, and finally, the learning outcomes of television viewing. Social skills and problems are the outcomes for children who are addicted to extreme violent video games or television programs not suitable for their age. "Perhaps the most strongly established link between social skills problems and poor outcomes has been found in the area of externalizing disorders, which by definition include a broad array of acting out and other-directed problems such as aggressive and antisocial behavior, hyperactivity, and the range of specific problems that are part of the conduct disorder syndrome" (Merrell & Gimpel, 1998, p. 19) This syndrome and other externalizing disorders are worth a special note because of their immensity and expense as a variety of evidence suggests that externalizing conduct problems are the most common reason for behavior therapy referral, represent about one third to one half of all family and school referrals for mental health services, and probably cost society more than any other type of social-emotional problems. More recently, "research and written work recommends extensive attention to be given on the development of antisocial behavior patterns in children and have developed a convincing theory of coercion training. This theory contends that patterns of antisocial and aggressive behavior tend to develop early in life, are learned within the family setting through various social learning processes, and have a cross-generational effect. As Wahler and Dumas (1986) stated, antisocial, aggressive children are usually 'a chip off the old block'" (Merrell & Gimpel, 1998, p. 20). One interesting aspect of this theory relates specifically to social skills deficits in children: Individuals with stable antisocial and aggressive behavior patterns may not learn to achieve their social goals in positive ways i.e., they lack certain positive social skills. Instead, they learn early in life to rely on painful, manipulative, and controlling behaviors to achieve their social goals, and the realization of these goals is often at the expense of other people. "Following up on this theory of how antisocial behavior develops, Wahler and Dumas (1986) reviewed a substantial body of evidence showing that delinquent youths tend to have a number of observable social skills deficits including deficiencies in eye contact, verbal acknowledgment of others' directives to them, use of questions, appropriate head nods, as well as deviant facial and body cues". (Merrell & Gimpel, 1998, p. 20) These researchers also noted that antisocial and delinquent youths tend to have deviant patterns of interpreting social cues and the intentions of others. In other words, antisocial, aggressive, and delinquent youths are not only likely to have basic deficits in social skills, they are also prone to inappropriately interpret hostile intent in routine social initiations made by others and follow these interpretations to further antisocial and aggressive acts. "The broad category of externalizing disorder not only includes conduct disorder and the patterns of antisocial and aggressive behavior that typically accompany it but a related disorder as well: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although less attention has been paid to the social skills correlates of children with ADHD than to other externalizing problems, some compelling evidence has accrued suggesting that deficits in social performance may be a central characteristic of this disorder. Although the peers of children with ADHD may consider them to be deficient in social skills, it may be that many of these perceived deficits are performance deficits rather than skill deficits". (Merrell & Gimpel, 1998, p. 20) So, the real cause behind all the deficits, disorders and psychological cognitions is the influence of devastating video games and television programs that teach nothing but rage and violence along with wastage of time which in the long run is responsible for children exploitation ruining their personalities, playing with their careers. Works Cited Assad Chory M. Rebecca & Cicchirillo Vincent, 2005. "Effects of Affective Orientation and Video Game Play on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors" in "Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media". Volume: 49. Issue: 4. Page Number: 435+. Broadcast Education Association Boyson R. Aaron, Ken Lachlan, Katherine M. Pieper, Stacy L. Smith, Ron Tamborini, Rene Weber & Barbara J. Wilson, 2004. "Brandishing Guns in American Media: Two Studies Examining How Often and in What Context Firearms Appear on Television and in Popular Video Games" in "Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media". Volume: 48. Issue: 4. Page Number: 584+. COPYRIGHT 2004 Broadcast Education Association. Lachlan A. Kenneth, Smith L. Stacy, & Tamborini Ron, 2005. "Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Characters in Popular Video Games" in "Communication Studies". Volume: 56. Issue: 4. Page Number: 313+. COPYRIGHT 2005 Central States Communication Association. Smith L. Stacy, Lachlan Ken & Tamborini Ron, 2003. "Popular Video Games: Quantifying the Presentation of Violence and Its Context" in "Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media". Volume: 47. Issue: 1. Page Number: 58+. COPYRIGHT 2003 Broadcast Education Association; Merrell W. Kenneth & Gimpel A. Gretchen, 1998. "Social Skills of Children and Adolescents: Conceptualization, Assessment, Treatment": Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Mahwah, NJ. Read More