The Subconscious Intrusion

The Subconscious Intrusion Burton FitchueThe Subconscious IntrusionWatching television and playing video games seem like innocent acts for a child to become involved in, but in reality, they are some of the most dangerous. At a young age, children's minds are similar to sponges; they absorb everything in their world. This characteristic makes children an easy target for the media to manipulate and victimize. Violence is not necessarily forced on children, but it does set a standard for what they see as ordinary and tolerable in our society. The average child watches approximately twenty-eight hours of television a week, and over half of all children in the United States have a television in their bedroom. Considering the fact that censors are allowing an extensive amount of violent content to be aired, as evidence by the record amount of violent acts shown per hour, it is scary to think that children are watching more hours of television than the amount of time spent in school.Jack Thompson (attorney) speakin g at a debate at C...Although violence has always been prevalent in society, it is an increasing problem. It is definitely true that violence in youth is multifactorial; poverty, child abuse, and family psychopathology all can lead a child down a path of violent behavior. Longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental studies have all confirmed a strong correlation between media violence, including television, films, and video games, and aggressive behavior in children. Violence in social media and videogames is dangerous because it is seen as only a game in the eyes of children; because constant exposure to violence causes desensitization; and because aggressive behavior is promoted, then imitated.Children have proved that they can attain much more information than one gives them credit for (Chenes 41). An eight year old child taken to the movies by a parent will catch three out...