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The Effects of Media Violence on Increased Aggression in Society Today

Beavis and Butthead, MTV cartoon characters, discuss how much fun it is to set fires. On one occasion, one of them lights a fire in the other’s hair by using aerosol spray cans and matches.

Later, 5-year-old Austin Messner, who had watched the cartoon, sets his bed on fire with a cigarette lighter. Although he and his mother escape the subsequent blaze, his younger sister dies (Feldman, 1997, p. 179). 

An 18-year-old boy locks himself in his room, mesmerized for hours by the corpse-filled video game Doom, while shock-rocker Marilyn Manson screams obscenities from the stereo. Shelved nearby are a video collection, including the graphically violent film Natural Born Killers, and a diary, replicating the unrestrained expressions of hate and death, published on the boy’s personal website. Should this boy’s media preferences be cause for alarm?

On April 20, 1999 there was a massacre of 12 students and a teacher by fellow Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The Littleton, Colorado teenagers reportedly immersed themselves in the same media described above, even producing and starring in their own murderous video before gunning down their classmates, and apparently taking their own lives. (Does Violence on Televisio…, n.d.). 

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Adolescent Suicide

During the last decade there has been a growing concern about youth suicide.  This concern arose from evidence of increasing rates of youth suicide in many societies during the 1980s and 1990s.   Currently, suicide is the second leading cause of death among American and Canadian youths (National Centre for Health Statistics, 2002).  This increase in the suicide rate has lead to growing research into the prevalence of suicidal behaviour; suicidal ideation and attempts in young people, in an endeavour to implement effective prevention strategies and treatment plans.  Suicide is the act of destroying oneself completely.  Like AIDS, it is no respecter of persons; it affects humanity regardless of race, colour, class or creed.  According to Human Development Psychologists, Berk, 2006, pg 458, suicide rate increases over the lifespan.  It is lowest in childhood and highest in old age, but it spurts sharply at adolescence. 

The critical period associated with turbulence – of special anxiety and frustration that can trigger impulsive acts including suicide.  In the 19th century, psychologist G. Standley Hall described adolescence as a time of “Sturm und Drang” -“storm and stress” (Griggin, 2001).    During this period the adolescents are forced to deal with several physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes.  These challenges can put the adolescents at risk of attempting and committing suicide if according to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the adolescents have not yet developed the skills needed in this formal operational stage to problem solve effectively.  Nevertheless, the main focus on academics and physical programmes by the authorities responsible for youth development in many societies has led to neglect of youth’s emotional wellbeing.  Hence, the implementation of prevention strategies and treatment plans for adolescents at risk of attempting and committing suicide is of paramount importance.

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