Have you ever re-watched a really scary movie that you watched as a child years ago? And then after that re-watch, you realized that the movie wasn't really scary at all? A steady diet of violent movies over the years has not only made me but almost all of us, irresponsible, insensitive and immoral citizens in our ever so fostering criminal world. What is a good samaritan really?
Many Americans enjoy violent movies and video games. In fact, we watch and play them so much that we are now desensitized to the point where, to some extent, we don't react to violence anymore. I'm sure many of you have noticed it within yourselves. Media companies have long since noticed and they are continuing to come up with more intense, violent movies and video games to get our hearts pumping. We have heard news stories make claims about violent media influencing us to commit crimes, but what we have not heard about is the controlling effect violence in the media has on our bodies.
The truth is out. We are becoming worse than we initially thought we were. As we become bored and desensitized by watching the same kinds of tactics Keanu Reeves used in “The Matrix”, we interestingly reflect that identical behavior, even in real life crimes! The negative response that we should be experiencing after watching a real life crime is missing. We are surprisingly “comfortably numb” to not only violent media but also violence in real life. This has been linked to being less altruistic and ignorant.
In a research report conducted by Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman from the University of Michigan and Iowa State University respectively, a study found that people who played violent video games were less likely to help a person in need than those who played non-violent games. But how do violent games desensitize us into being less helpful? Now this is where physiology comes into action. A person with a history of exposure to extremely violent movies and video games has different physiological reactivity when it comes to real-life crimes. When we see violence happening in our neighborhood, we are supposed to feel negative emotions followed by increased skin conductance and higher heart rate. Surprisingly, some people don’t react this way. Exposure to long periods of violent video games and movies cancels the physiological arousal factor in our body which helps us to impede aggression and increase behavior that favors generosity and helping behavior.
Violent media not only makes us feel numb toward real life crimes and decrease altruistic behavior, it also makes us imitate and commit horrendous crimes. Millions of children are exposed to extremely violent video games. If violent media can affect adults then it is extremely crucial to protect our children and youths from extremely violent media due to their vulnerable minds.
Many people don’t respond to crimes happening near them. They just walk away and ignore what is happening. We become less charitable and helpful due to long exposure to violent media. We are not only affecting our moral values as citizens of the world but also helping in contributing crimes.
We often wonder why nobody helps directly or indirectly. I know that there could be various reasons for not helping. Desensitization facilitates these reasons because no matter what we should be able to help a fellow human being when we see them in pain. This is a value embedded in the minds of every human being and we must be able to preserve it.
