Excessive Depiction of Sex and Violence in TV and Films and Video Games

Ruthanne

Ruthanne

Caregiver
Location
Midwest
This topic has probably have been here before but so have all the other topics here..lol:sentimental:...so do you think we have too much violence and sex on tv and in video games and do you think it influences our behaviours as a people? I wonder just what may be all the effects it has on us...I used to watch Jerry Springer and found myself becoming agitated more easily. For example, I stopped watching it and don't feel that way any more generally. At the time, though, I was also taking a tranquilizing medication that was known to sometimes cause agitation in some people so there it is.

Most of these studies have focused on television violence and have concluded that there are some negative effects related to watching violent or aggressive behaviour on TV. They do not necessarily indicate a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Rather,they suggest that exposure to media depictions of violence enhances the risk that the viewer will engage in subsequent aggressive behaviour. The effects of exposure to violence in the media are by no means inevitable and may be amplified or reduced by a variety of other factors (Australia 1990). Research into the effects ofpornography and violent video/computer games, while less voluminous than television research, has begun to draw similar conclusions.The relationship between media depictions of violence and subsequent violent behaviour is extremely complex.
Click to expand...


http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi055.pdf

“Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching proportions that are dangerous,” said Emanuel Tanay, MD, a retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University and a forensic psychiatrist for more than 50 years.“You turn on the television, and violence is there. You go to a movie, and violence is there,” Tanay told Psychiatric Times. “Reality is distorted. If you live in a fictional world, then the fictional world becomes your reality.”
The average American watches nearly 5 hours of video each day, 98% of which is watched on a traditional television set, according to Nielsen Company. Nearly two-thirds of TV programs contain some physical violence. Most self-involving video games contain some violent content, even those for children.1
Click to expand...

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/child-adolescent-psychiatry/violence-media-what-effects-behavior

Do the assumptions about video-game violence leading to similarly violent behavior among children and adolescents make sense? On the surface many might think that “pulling the trigger” in such games is even worse that watching a violent film passively.. There has in fact been extensive research and writing on the impact of violent movies and videos on behavior in kids. Some worry that there is a direct link, while others are concerned that these kinds of activities simply isolate kids or have addictive potential. The biggest fear many parents and clinicians have is that exposure to games or visual media with violent content may turn ordinary children and adolescents into violent people in the real world.But research is clearly lacking on a direct causal relationship between violent video games and youth violence. Interestingly, the US has the highest homicide rate in the world. But, as Fareed Zakaria noted in The Washington Post, the Japanese are avid video game players and have a homicide rate close to zero. He argues that the difference is the incredibly strict restrictions on firearms. In fact, the rate of video game use of all kinds is actually decreasing in the United States, and many of the top selling games are decidedly non-violent. (Does the NRA want to take on Super-Mario Brothers as etiologic for mass shootings?) Furthermore, as Mr. Zakaria suggests, many comparable nations have comparable consumption of video game and violent media, but low homicide rates.
The fact is that analyses of school shooting incidents from the US Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime do not support a link between violent games and real world attacks. In 2011 the Supreme Court struck down California’s law barring the sale or rental of violent video games to people under 18. Dr. Cheryl Olson, one of a number of consutants supporting a brief challenging the law, noted in a New York Times Op-Ed on June 27, 2011 that he Court opinion stated that fairy tales are full of violence. She further reported that after hearing a great deal of testimony it concluded that we just don’t know enough about the effects of video games to recommend sound policy solutions. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. agreed with the majority opinion. Justice Alito opined that we should be careful about the development of technology and that “may have important societal implications that will become apparent only with time,” and that video games “may have potential benefits as well as potential risks.” Indeed, there has been research demonstrating a positive effect of violent games on hand-eye coordination and other skills.
Click to expand...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...deo-games-and-movies-causing-violent-behavior
 

I don't know about video games since I've never played one, but TV and film is graphically violent. I had watched an episode of AMC's The Walking Dead where a character beat two other men he had captured to death with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, taunting them all the while. It was a sickening display.
 
chic said:
I don't know about video games since I've never played one, but TV and film is graphically violent. I had watched an episode of AMC's The Walking Dead where a character beat two other men he had captured to death with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, taunting them all the while. It was a sickening display.
Click to expand...
I've seen things that bad, too, chic and had to look away. It is hard to watch. Gross!:holymoly:
 

I like a good action movie like; the 007 movies, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Untouchables, The Terminator, Rambo, old and new war movies etc.......I don't like what I call graphic and gory 'blood & guts' movies like; Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.

Some may argue they are in fact the same because they all depict violence but to me there is a big difference.
 
Last edited:
I agree, Pappy.

Some of the old Hitchcock thrillers or film noir movies created a mood of suspense without a great deal of gore.

I don't really have a problem with any television program geared towards adults. I think that the adults in the room need to monitor the viewing habits of the kids in the family and try to set an example for them.

Remember the days when we all gathered around the television for Bonanza, Ed Sullivan, The Wonderful World of Disney?

db8471f2387ed78d54b4c044f3829ba7--tv-radio-vintage-retro.jpg
 
I am not a fan of the endless gouts of blood/torture/rape genre, but in the end I am just as offended by shows which depict females as helpless/hysterical idiots who are unable to make an important decision without the help of males, are obsessed with their appearance, and live for the approval of their man. Gaaaaah.
 
It seems that many of the movies and TV shows are geared towards the mentality of a 14yr. old, with little in the way of a plot, and depicting excessive violence. People who engage in this form of "entertainment" might very well begin to accept this Hollywood garbage as normal behavior, and I'm sure that it is one of the reasons why so many people become "confrontational".
 
Sex and violence have always been the uppermost needs of humans; violence for the male especially. Cruelty and gore have always been part of humanity, sad to say, all throughout known history.

Reproduction- of course.

"Glory" of the battle, etc. it seems.

IMO if we can't actually do one or the other, next best thing is to watch.
 
Shalimar said:
I am not a fan of the endless gouts of blood/torture/rape genre, but in the end I am just as offended by shows which depict females as helpless/hysterical idiots who are unable to make an important decision without the help of males, are obsessed with their appearance, and live for the approval of their man. Gaaaaah.
Click to expand...

Where's Archie Bunker when you need him???? :):)
 
Maybe not the violence, but I think the openness of sexuality is healthy. Attitudes toward sex were way too repressive back in the 1950's.
 
I never minded some sex and violence in movies or on TV, if the show was a good one, like mafia or gangster movies. I don't know anyone who watches violent video games, but I do believe that young kids or teens who sit at the screen playing those games for hours at a time do lose some social conscience and it can be a bad influence if played to excess. Here's an old movie that was pretty good, been years since I saw it.

 
Grumpy Ol' Man said:
Where's Archie Bunker when you need him???? :):)
Click to expand...

He went the way of Amos and Andy. Too politically incorrect for television. That's a shame because we learned more about racial tolerance by watching how ridiculous Archie made himself look in those endless arguments with educated son-in-law Mike. :eek:

I agree with those who feel we didn't need extreme gore back in the day because we embraced subtlety and imagination. The Twilight Zone was scary with no gore at all.
 
I for one am enormously bored by all the gratuitous sex and violence on TV. I try to avoid watching shows that have either one, as there are so many really good shows on now, pretty much minus those things.
I'm not talking about G-rated children's shows, I'm thinking about the many excellent offerings on the streaming channels such as Netflix and Acorn. (And HBO).

I'm watching a really thought-provoking show now on Acorn (all British shows, $5.99 a month and well worth it). It's called The Edwardian Country House, and is an interesting kind of reality TV. A group of people signed up to stay in one of those gorgeous mansions, a la Downton Abbey, for 3 months. They are not actors, they are just regular people who are curious as to what it would have been like to live in one of those houses back in 1905. One small family are the gentry who "own" the home, the rest are servants. It's fascinating to see how a modern person reacts to the life of those poor servants, when they are stuck having to do the actual work. I just finished episode 3, where the staff finally have a rebellion against their working conditions and demand some time off once a week. Makes you realize what a price was paid by the poor people "in service" to provide those gorgeous homes, clothes, etc. for the rich! (And not a bit of sex or violence, at least not yet.)

About Archie Bunker, he was more complicated than that. Ignorant and wrong as he was much of the time, his impulses were mostly good ones, helped along by Edith. He was blindly repeating a lot of the stuff he had grown up with, but little by little softened his stance, and by the end of the series was actually a pretty decent human being. He was easy to laugh at, but I don't think too many people actually hated him.
 
Last edited:
I'm immune to it for the most part. I won't avoid a good movie because of the violence or sex in it. If it lasts too long I just fast forward thru it.

It really doesn't interest me at all but at the same time it doesn't bother me either. It's a movie and not my real life.
 
Sunny said:
About Archie Bunker, he was more complicated than that. Ignorant and wrong as he was much of the time, his impulses were mostly good ones, helped along by Edith. He was blindly repeating a lot of the stuff he had grown up with, but little by little softened his stance, and by the end of the series was actually a pretty decent human being. He was easy to laugh at, but I don't think too many people actually hated him.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you Sunny about Archie's TV character. I used to watch the show a lot for a laugh, and he did slowly soften toward the end. Edith and Archie played their parts well, the ignorant naive dingbat and the grouchy narrow minded old husband. For the time is was a good show and an easy laugh.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I completely agree with you Sunny about Archie's TV character. I used to watch the show a lot for a laugh, and he did slowly soften toward the end. Edith and Archie played their parts well, the ignorant naive dingbat and the grouchy narrow minded old husband. For the time is was a good show and an easy laugh.
Click to expand...

Yes, did really enjoy the show. So many of Archie's comments were, as the poster said, a result of the society he grew up in. His 'chirping' at his son-in-law. His relationship with black neighbors. Was one sitcom I believe we watched almost every episode.
 
Sunny said:
I for one am enormously bored by all the gratuitous sex and violence on TV. I try to avoid watching shows that have either one, as there are so many really good shows on now, pretty much minus those things.
I'm not talking about G-rated children's shows, I'm thinking about the many excellent offerings on the streaming channels such as Netflix and Acorn. (And HBO).

I'm watching a really thought-provoking show now on Acorn (all British shows, $5.99 a month and well worth it). It's called The Edwardian Country House, and is an interesting kind of reality TV. A group of people signed up to stay in one of those gorgeous mansions, a la Downton Abbey, for 3 months. They are not actors, they are just regular people who are curious as to what it would have been like to live in one of those houses back in 1905. One small family are the gentry who "own" the home, the rest are servants. It's fascinating to see how a modern person reacts to the life of those poor servants, when they are stuck having to do the actual work. I just finished episode 3, where the staff finally have a rebellion against their working conditions and demand some time off once a week. Makes you realize what a price was paid by the poor people "in service" to provide those gorgeous homes, clothes, etc. for the rich! (And not a bit of sex or violence, at least not yet.)

About Archie Bunker, he was more complicated than that. Ignorant and wrong as he was much of the time, his impulses were mostly good ones, helped along by Edith. He was blindly repeating a lot of the stuff he had grown up with, but little by little softened his stance, and by the end of the series was actually a pretty decent human being. He was easy to laugh at, but I don't think too many people actually hated him.
Click to expand...

Sunny, I'm enjoying the Edwardian Country House, too. I LOVE Acorn TV. LOVE their mysteries, too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top