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One of the greatest inventions providing people with entertainment is television. Interestingly, even with the rapid development of the Internet that offers numerous ways of being entertained, television is still able to make millions of people all over the world sit in front of the screens of their TV sets. Unfortunately, besides entertaining, television also seems to have a serious negative impact on its viewers by exposing them to violence scenes on a regular basis. Some may argue that this impact is negligible, and the viewers realize that what they see on their screens is not real, but if such exposure happens frequently, a viewer, sometimes even subconsciously, may develop an idea that violence is the norm.
Feeling Anxiety
One of the problems of the television violence is that being often exposed to it, a viewer may think with time that their own city, the area they live in, and even their street is violent and dangerous. This may have a serious psychological pressure on them and develop the feeling of anxiety and fear. In turn, always expecting aggressive behavior from others, they themselves become aggressive in an attempt to defend themselves. This aggressiveness with the flow of time will be deeply rooted in them as they keep seeing violence on their screens with no chances of eradicating it.
Most Vulnerable Group
Most harm that violent television does to society is its impact on children. Unlike adults, who in most cases know right from wrong and real from fictional and theatrical, children may have serious difficulties with this since their mental capacity is not well developed. As a result, they often perceive differently what they see on the screen. Their values, just as their understanding of the world, are not yet formed, which prevents them from clearly seeing what are right and wrong things to do. Consequently, children may develop aggressive behavior, and if it is not addressed in a proper manner, it can cause grave problems in their adolescence and adulthood.
Is the Effect Significant?
There are people who believe that television and television violence, in particular, do not influence individual’s perception since a human is a reasonable being and they understand when the information they receive is real and when it is not. Moreover, some social theories suggest that if an individual lives in a society, they abide by its standards and social norms, and therefore, they avoid violent behavior since it is anti-social. Unfortunately, in reality, these arguments are not entirely true. Yes, if one is exposed to violent scenes infrequently, he or she will probably not be affected by them. But if a person constantly views them, he or she may become sort of hypnotized, and some psychological issues may appear.
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Therefore, television violence can be harmful to the society for two main reasons. First, it may have a negative impact on the underdeveloped consciousness of children. Second, frequent exposure to it may develop psychological problems.
