Shock: TV Doesn't Cause Violence
by
I think people that believe that television, movies, and games cause kids to become violent are generally real prudes and that almost all of life's annoyances can be traced directly back to prudish people who want to ruin all the fun in life for the rest of us. They don't like porn or violence but it isn't enough just for them to avoid exposing themselves to it, they have to forbid the rest of us from having it too, because controlling other peoples lives makes them feel more secure since deep down, they know they have no control over their own.
Congratulations if you managed to stomach my sermon, for I now reward you with a study about to be released that concludes that, amazingly enough, all human beings are born violent and learn to control their aggression in the normal course of growing up. Funny how conservative prudes trumpet studies when they happen to agree with their own personal opinion and philosophy, but when they are damaging to pseudo-scientific claims of hysteria, they say that "studies don't mean anything. So they say it, so must it be.
All babies are born with violent tendencies, which most kids learn to control as they grow older, a U. of Montreal professor who has spent more than 20 years studying 35,000 Canadian children told ScientificAmerican.com. Those who don't or can't learn are the ones who become violent.
"It's a natural behavior and it's surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant," Richard Tremblay told the website. "Clearly youth were violent before television appeared."
I'm one of those fringe statistical abnormalities that loves violent movies and games and actually grew up to be a (mostly) normal person, one who attributes their level head to a good upbringing by good parents. Certainly there are a lot of kids that are born with physical problems that we don't understand that can and do make their life extremely difficult, but not every instance of a problem in society can be solved by cultural censorship.
February 11, 2008 1:42 PM | Reply
Sincerely,
Kris Mantay
November 28, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply
More evidence ties media violence to teen violence
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081126/tv_nm/us_teen_violence_1
November 30, 2008 6:48 AM | Reply
So? Sugar and caffeine enhances violent behavior, are we going to outlaw that, too? Studies like this are solutions in search of problems. Kids can't buy violent video games in the U.S. so it's a moot point.
It's also a single study, this Yahoo! article writes about it but gives us literally no information about how the study was conducted. It could be completely faulty, as well as being entirely pointless.