First of all:

quote:

Obviously not academic, as American academic standards are extremely low compared to Japan and Germany, and they cope.

Thats bullsh!t. Kids in Japan are more likely to commit suicide because of academic presure then kids in any other country.

Second:

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one dude. one mall. one incident. pardon the faux pas, but who cares?...9 ain't a drop in a bucket.it's an electron in a swimming pool

I have to say I agree. People all over the world are killed every day . Hell, people all over the world are killed by us every day. The only thing different about this is that we cant ignore it like we do every thing else, this is right in our faces.

Now i dont wasnt you people to think that i am a heartless b!tch, I know that this hard for people to deal with.But America has a bad case of "it cant happen to me", and its about time we woke up.

Actually, I did my senior paper on this very subject: does violence in movies and television inspire violent feelings in individuals?

The actual answer: scientifically, there is not enough evidence to support that notion. There are two key pieces of information that point to the fact that it cannot be proven (as of now).

Point #1: All research on this subject has been correlation studies. If you're not familiar, it basically would be (in this situation), studying how many people who commit acts of violence watch violent media? There are two flaws with this research: everyone watches violent media. Everyone. Second, anyone familiar with this research method knows that correlation --does not prove cause and effect!-- It cannot suggest that people commit acts of violence because they watch violent programs any more than it could suggest people who are already violent choose to watch violent programs.

Point #2: These 'movie and video game inspired' attacks occur in America, not France, Russia, or even Japan. Visiting these countries you learn quickly their films and video games are far, far more violent than ours. Yet, our murder rate is astronomically higher than theirs. What does this suggest? This specific problem is only in America; ergo the cause is something other than media.


To answer the original question: I'm not sure why this is happening. It is not likely violent movies and games. We live in a world where individuals are more invigorated, empowered, and feel they should have control over the life and death of their fellow man. Why this is so common now is strange and will unexplained for a long time.

Whoa. Three more shootings in the last day or so :/

Actually, media in European countries is known for being SIGNIFICANTLY less violent than media in the United States. European media tends to have more sexuality (which Americans often criticize) while American media tends to have more violence (which Europeans often criticize).

quote:

Originally posted by braininabox:
Whoa. Three more shootings in the last day or so :/

yup, I saw that too. Anyone still wanna say theres not a problem here?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eSpCWJnnWVI

I see movies and video games more as a way we fulfill our bizarre urges...

If the video games in Japan are more violent and there is less violence in real life, maybe that's saying something...

But you also have to think about the size of each individual country. The US is a lot bigger than Japan, and it has more people so it would make since that there's more violence...

I can't think of a better time to link this:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/163

If you've got twenty minutes, it's a great watch. If not, it's divided so that you can choose to start and watch from key parts.

elliott (otiose)...

Yeah I definitely have to agree with Pinker in that video. Today's world is actually relatively peaceful and uneventful...considering in the medieval times every single nation had a violent bloody overthrow every 5 years, and at least 4 major wars were going on at any given time.

Another shooting in at the University of Northern Illinois today...man this is becoming quite a routine occurrence.

I'm curious. In American film ratings, it's O.K. for my twelve-year old to see people's heads exploding (and I'm shocked that a lot of his grade six peers have seen the Saw series), but if there's even one flash of titty on the screen, you folks slap a Restricted rating on it. Does this indicate a propensity for making war, not love, more accessible to our youth?

Ironically enough, the banner ad I see right now is for "FRONT SIGHT FIREARMS TRAINING INSTITUTE." It's got a sharp clip art of a shiny automatic gun of some sort, and a logo of a geometric person (think circle head, box body) in a gun's sight.

Ew.

A bit inappropriate on a site that many high school students visit while exploring their options for higher education, I must say. But hey, Google AdSense sees guns, so they do what they can to match the subject matter, I suppose.

All the same, I think I preferred that constant Skechers ad of days gone by.

while this thread has been revived, i have to say that i 100% agree with the F'd-upedness of the MPAA rating system.

also, regarding media in the United States:
I live in the homicide capital of Canada, with more murders per capita than anywhere else in the country. That said, I was recently in LA and San Diego, and TV news there was FAR more sensationalist, and contained far more violence, and contained absolutely ZERO international news. Top stories included: a severed head found in a parking lot, several homicides and shootings, and a man delivering his baby on the freeway. All of which had reporters at the scene to report nothing but conjecture, and no actual developments. This all happened within the 3 or so days that i actually botheres to watch the news, which I turned off after about 10 minutes.... So does this equate to more violence... i don't know, but i the whole "culture of fear" thing really makes sense when you are constantly bombarded by useless, violent conjecture. thats all you would know.

that said, San Diego is probably the nicest city i have ever seen.

Hi Evan! That is funny in the most ghastly way. I can't even watch the news and I've never let my son watch it either. Although it is impossible to shelter him when he's doing drills with his class in case a gunman tears through their school. It's hard to imagine that a person who watches Jerry Springer, a few hits of Jackass and then plays Call of Duty 3 for the next ten hours isn't completely skewed...

I think sex shouldn't be as big of a deal as it is in America... it's funny how we focus more on violence. You'd think something EVERYONE does would be more accepted than violence.

according to Wilhelm Reich all our worldy problems are caused by our repressed sexuality. according to him we're all supposed to be doing it by the time we're 6.

Last time I was in a video store, it was impossible to scan one row of covers without seeing graphic, violent imagery. All of the sex/porno covers are carefully shut away in some back room like a dirty secret. The message is clear to kids: hard-core blood and gore are no big deal; soft-core images of breasts and buttocks are too disturbing for young developing minds. I hope we can bring some balance to the censorship issue; why is destroying life a more acceptable theme for our kids than the act of creating it?

just make movies without these things....its easy since evry movie in theatres already reuses these same ideas. its easy to do what they dont! this way we artists win.

i don't know if it is a matter of removing sex and violence from films... You just have to know why you put them there, and have a reason behind showing things the way you do...sex and violence are universal human experiences, but once you take away the dignity of human experience, you have an action with a meaning that is removed from reality.

I think that once you show sex and violence as having minimal, or unrealistic consequences, you need a mature audience to be able to understand that this isn't how it works in real life.

Unfortunately, in the American culture, the reason behind most depicted acts of sex and violence is exploitation. The media has created this disturbing new collective reality. As we continue to inundate the most vulnerable, impressionable part of our society with constant messages that life is expendable and sex is pathological, it amazes me that everyone's more concerned about the harmful effects of second-hand smoke or, god forbid, second-hand marijuana smoke....