A couple weeks ago, shortly after the shooting in Florida, I was watching one of the TV shows that I keep up with on a regular basis, "The Fosters." As I watched the episode, I found myself extremely upset. During the episode, there was a gunman at the school the main characters attended. As the show was in no way mocking the idea of a shooting happening, it still felt like the timing was a little inconsiderate. And I know that this episode was planned to air long before this event happened, but it still didn't sit well with me.

Towards the end of the episode, though, there was a school assembly where the vice principal, also one of the main characters of the show, was talking at the podium. This moment turned the episode around for me, and made me realize something. As she ended her speech, she said, "But how is it that school shootings have become something to expect and prepare for? As a country, as a community, we've accepted this as normal. Why? This isn't normal! This shouldn't be normal."

This hit me. Hard. I agree, these disasters shouldn't be normal. They are the furthest thing from normal, but our world has recognized them as such. We know this because of modern entertainment. The idea of school shootings, and other things like rape, kidnapping and any form of murder, has become the premise of so many forms of entertainment: TV shows, movies, books, video games, etc. Even in shows for children, there are bullies. If we didn’t give kids the idea to be a bully, there would be less of them within our communities. Entertainment does do a good job in making sure the antagonist in any story line ends up as the lesser of the two, portraying that evil always loses. This is good, but the downfall of it is that it teaches viewers that it is normal for there to be a person with bad intentions walking around their neighborhood at night, or to not trust someone they meet at a bar. And it is extremely smart to be cautious and not too accepting when it comes to strangers, but we’re teaching people that it's normal for these things to happen when it’s not. It may happen more than it should, but it is not normal.

Content creators use modern tragedy to create entertainment worth viewing. And I understand that these situations create extremely interesting story lines, and that these forms of entertainment need interesting story lines to be successful. But the problem is that the media is a model. When viewers see things on TV, they think it’s normal, and sometimes certain behaviors get duplicated. As adults, we should be mature enough to handle these shows and movies by knowing that they aren't normal or acceptable. We know that it's fiction and that these things happening aren’t right or good. But another problem is that kids 18 and younger are watching these shows and movies, too. And this is when they are in their most vulnerable years of their lives. When they view these situations at a younger age, they are probably more prone to mimic these behaviors, therefore creating more of these devastating events within reality.

I’m not really sure how to fix this situation, or if there even is a solution to the situation. Maybe our country’s entertainment should be monitored better. Maybe the parents in our country should set more boundaries for their children. Or, maybe we should completely change the foundation of media and entertainment in our country. No matter what, it’s extremely difficult and I’m not sure I personally can do anything to fix it. But regardless of what happens, I refuse to believe what is happening in our world today is normal. It’s not normal.