Violence on television affects society negatively, according to psychological research. Not only do television shows influence social lives, but it also modifies and alters children’s lives. Television is clearly not a pharmaceutical drug in that it is not a substance which has a chemical effect on the body; however it is possible that it can be seen as a preponderant which entices other chemicals within the brain to significantly alter the human behavior and can often become an obsession.
Television was first introduced to the world in the mid-1900. It was known as the action of seeing by means of Hertzian waves or what is happening at a place concealed or distant form the observer’s eyes. With the most state of the art technology in today’s industrialized world, television conveniently located wherever one may look or go, on the internet, phones, and even in some cases, in automobiles. Today’s technology even enables interactive service to be delivered through television sets. It is a passive medium involving no direct interaction with the viewer.
With the invention of television, even the hearing impaired can now enjoy this mean of entertainment. Thanks to a group of engineers from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) who developed Cee-fax in 1972, a tele-text information service, transmitted via analogue signal. It is an invention that provides televisual subtitles and is currently still in use today. Unfortunately, many of the shows that are shown are highly violent and can have negative influence on society to behave and indulge in violent behavior. This is a topic that is now in discussion between the Hollywood insiders, the government and television viewers. There are several highly publicized studies that were recently published that looked at the long term effects of violence on television Television can be a powerful influence in developing a value system and behavior in children. Much of today’s television programming that targets children is violent. Several studies conducted by the University of California have found that children may become immune to the horror of violence and gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems, which can eventually spilled over into their own family. Children may imitate the violence that may have been observe on television, bringing it into society, identify and relate it to certain real life characters, victims and or victimizers.
In one scene from the popular television show CSI, Danny, the main character is awakened by his ten year old neighbor, Ruben Sandoval, who wants Danny to take him to church for the blessing of the bikes and on their way back Danny hears a commotion from a robbery in progress at a bodega, a shot was fired and he when to investigate. Upon reaching the scene, the robber turn on Danny and his ten year old neighbor, proceeds to rob Danny. When Danny resisted the robber began to strike him with his revolver leaving him with a bloody face. Ruben consequently intervened; he was subsequently shot and killed by the robber. This not only depicts violence, but also includes violence on a child.
In February 1996, Barry Loukaitis a 14 years old male student of Frontier Junior High School shot three of his class mates and one of his teachers. The shooting killed two of his class mate and his teacher leaving the other wounded. No one know the real motive for the shooting, but some students reported hearing a few days before the shooting, Barry saying that he was intrigued by a movie he had watch on television by the name of “Natural Born Killers”, and a made for television movie, “Rage”, by Stephen King. It may never be known whether these shows were the reason why Barry Loukaitis shot his class mate and teacher, but it sure did influence him.
A popular MTV cartoon show Beavis and Butt portrays two very foul speaking friends that encourages arson, drinking and stealing. With these bad attitudes seen depicted as normal by cartoon characters on a television show, children are lead to believe that it is cool and it is normal to behave in this manner. This is definitely not what the future generation needs to be corrupting and infecting their young minds with. Study conducted the Department of Canadian Heritage found that children who watched high action exciting television content show symptoms of aggressive behavior among their peers, especially after watching violent shows. This study also found association between early television viewing and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).