Does Media Cause Violent Behavior example essay topic

Who doesn't love climbing into the car and catching one of their favorite songs just as it begins or waking up to an alarm clock singing that one song that helps to spring you out of bed and into the day? It affects everyone. It makes us excited or it could make us cry. Whether songs contain happy, sad, violent, sexual or vulgar lyrics, it affects one's mood in both a positive or negative way. Lyrics have become gradually more explicit over the past several decades and contain dangerous messages that provide unethical ideas to our youth. Many think explicit lyrics and dark, violent images of band members cause malicious thoughts and deeds in our youth today.

However, violent music cannot be all there is to blame for the corruption of our kids. In the past few years, we have too often heard heartbreaking stories of children hurting or killing themselves or others while imitating scenes from violent movies and television shows, or acting out lyrics to violent songs. According to the American Association of Pediatrics (A.A.P. ), children listen to a variety of songs dealing with real life situations such as pregnancy, drug use, racism, sexually transmitted diseases, injuries, homicide, and suicide. And unfortunately, in today's society sex, violence, and crime is a part of everyday life.

Many teens view their music as being about life in general, "life's struggles, friendship, love, religion, etc". In one study posted by the A.A.P. only thirty percent of teenagers actually knew the lyrics to their favorite songs, and their understanding of the song's meaning varied significantly. Yet, a small number of teenagers have been found to be very impressionable to the explicit lyrics and their song preference may be extremely important. In the cases of Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; and Paducah, Kentucky violent music along with other violent media have been high on the list of usual causes. These events along with the fact from the Journal of Adolescent Research, 'children who were exposed to violent music later expressed a greater acceptance of violence,' are main points in the battle against violent music. Even so, blaming of violent music as a primary cause in the current school shootings is a dangerous generalization.

By concentrating closely on just the effects of violent music and children's aggressive behavior many count out the threat of other key factors that are not stressed as much as the media. In Does Media Cause Violent Behavior, the psychologist states, "I have worked with countless families that are plagued by violence, and I can attest to the fact that it is never simply a matter of too much violent media. It would be wonderful if it were that simple. Children who act in violent ways truly do suffer from a confluence of environmental and psychological difficulties". In fact the high rates of delinquency were directly related to the very low levels of parental supervision, according to a study done for Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Many critics who view music as a cause for criminal behavior also overlook mental illness, struggles with money, drugs, or depression. According to the National Institute on Media and the Family, most fans of explicit music are not even at-risk for aggressive or violent behavior. On the other hand, the extreme small percentage of at-risk teens was found to be drawn to the music for acceptance of casual sex, substance abuse, and suicidal or homicidal thoughts. In fact, mad, depressed, explicit lyrics were found only to be risk factors for suicide and violence for teens that were already depressed and alienated from mainstream school culture, suicidal, or have substance and family problems. To date, no studies have completely documented a cause-and-effect relationship between explicit and violent lyrics and delinquent behavior, i. e., I'll listen to a song about killing someone therefore I go out and kill. Although, we can all admit the overall effect music has on everyone.

Otherwise, what is the point of listening to it? Music wakes us up in the morning, makes us want to dance, calms us when we " re mad, or soothes us when we " re sad. Throughout our lives, it is a tremendous influence. However, we should not be using music as an excuse for aggressive behavior. Instead, we need to face the reality that violence is caused by other factors, such as lack of parental guidance, environment, lifestyle, and ignorance due to lack of education and understanding about the harsh realities in today's society.

Bibliography

Arnett, J. "The Soundtrack of Recklessness: Musical Preferences and Reckless Behavior Among Adolescents". 1992: 313-331.
Journal of Adolescent Research. Online. 8 March 2002.
Hogan, Marjorie. "Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth". Volume 98 Number 6 (Dec. 1996): 1219-1221.
Online. Internet. Available: web Smith, S.L., "Factsheets: Music". 2002: n.
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Available : web Wright, Kathryn. "Does Media Cause Violent Behavior?" 10 Oct. 2000.
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