Television and Video Games Violence Increases Aggression in Youth in the Short Term and the Long

Violence on Television Effects Young Viewers

Television and Video Games Violence Increases Aggression in Youth in the Short Term and the Long

Kurt Bain

Wake Technical Community College

Psychology 237-2102

November 10, 2008

Television and Video Games Violence Increases Aggression in Youth in the Short Term and the Long

Televisions, first sold in mass production in the early 1940's, became a staple in many American homes in subsequent years. This new medium was similar to the radio but now social norms were visually perpetuated into the American households from whoever bought the time. This posed many psychological and sociological issues. How was this mass medium going to effect our populous? Will it effect our youth more than our adults and how? Do laws of free speech protect harmful content on such a grand scale? Will violence in young to preadolescent television viewing lend itself to aggressive behavior in the teenage and adult life? Never before had such a graphic medium been introduced into a society.

No Video Games

A typical retail display (in Geneva, Switzerland) ...

Barnstar for WikiProject Video Games.

Many reports by psychological studies have suggested, rather in unison, that violent television does correlate positively toward aggression towards others as well as fear of aggression from others. Television violence effects children in the short-term through increased aggression toward their piers by offering them violent schemata to solve daily issues, and also in the long-term resulting, in some studies, in an undo fear of the world around them, increased criminal activity and even teenage smoking. Effects on children from viewing violent television and playing violent video games can be seen in that they are less empathetic to others pain, they are more likely to act out aggressively towards others, and they may be more afraid of the outside world. It is said that we learn...