Comfort Of Our Own Homes Essay -- social issues

Comfort Of Our Own Homes Violence is very wide spread in society today and is growing at an alarming rate among our children. Everyday we seem to hear of children beating on one another, ganging up on the elderly, invading homes, and even murdering people. One has to question how much effect different sorts of media have on our children. From the time we are very young we can be exposed to seeing and hearing horrible acts of violence on the television and radio, and through video games. Sadly, I believe this is where it all starts - in the comfort of our own homes. Over and over again children watch violent programs and play video games with the goal of killing others. Eventually many of them find it amusing and enjoyable to see others being hurt and killed. Parents, in general, are not protecting their kids from this invasion of media violence. Many children laugh at violence and think it’s funny to hurt others. According to David Grossman, a former psychology professor and author of a Pulitzer-nominated book on the psychology of violence, the most dangerous of all media is that which teaches the child to laugh. â€Å" Once you get beyond the early age where kids are stunned and mesmerized by TV and can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, you find they begin to laugh at the violence†. (Grierson, Adbusters 2) Children who view a lot of television become hardened to violence. â€Å" Media violence systematically brutalizes and desensitizes its r...