In the twenty-first century, technology is everywhere we go. From social media, television shows, video games, and movies, we are influenced by what we see on these platforms every day. With this, media violence is displayed throughout many areas and impacts society in an array of different ways. Many people have been influenced negatively such as higher levels of anxiety, decreased interest in other people’s feelings, and increased display of aggression. Today, it is common for most people to have a type of technology in their homes; whether that be a television, computer, or cell phone, we see it everywhere we go. On the other hand, many researchers have claimed that having technology can affect someone’s personality in a negative way. While some may argue that media violence does not affect a person’s behavior, there are more aspects of how it can create negative actions. Unfortunately, not many television, video game, and movie companies have expressed concern about the controversial issue because violence makes money. Moreover, violent media causes aggressive behavior because of the many symptoms that develops in a person, psychological issues, and the types of media that influences society on a daily basis.

There are many symptoms that media violence has proved to show through people. The first common symptom is aggression, which is stated to be the top issue shown in children and adolescents. Aggression is defined to be the action of violent behavior or attitudes toward others. On the other hand, many speculators ask how media violence causes aggression. Many research studies have gone on to prove how this can be, such as examining fifty or more students ranging in age to see how they react after playing two or more hours of violent video games. All these studies were demonstrated through Craig A. Anderson and his colleagues to crack down on how a child’s behavior changes after interacting with violent games, movies, or television. Psychiatric Times author, Arline Kaplan, states “Anderson said that high exposure to fast-paced violent games can lead to changes in brain function when processing violent images, including dampening of emotional responses to violence and decreases in certain types of executive control” (Kaplan). Furthermore, media violence causes aggressive comprehension which causes a person to negatively act out without thinking about the other person will react. 

Another symptom shown through violent media is the idea that children become less sensitive to pain and suffering of others. This trait is more difficult to understand because many people ask what this actually means, or how can children at such a young age develop a trait like this. Children absorb more ideas and images more than a developed teenager or young adult, and when younger aged adolescents interact with violent media, they start to consume the negative traits displayed in television shows and movies. Eugene V. Beresin further explains this idea by stating “the typical scenario of using violence for a righteous cause may translate in daily life into a justification for using violence to retaliate against perceived victimizers. Hence, vulnerable youth who have been victimized may be tempted to use violent means to solve problems” (Beresin). In other words, children who watch or play with violent media tend to think that this is a normal behavior, so they start to act like this to imitate their favorite character. This causes negative behavior because, if not fixed, can carry out into adulthood and that person will have trouble with communication and mental health issues. 

The next symptom shown in a person’s behavior are higher levels of anxiety and depression. While interacting with violent media, people experience high levels of adrenaline and possibly increased heart rate. Then when people step out of the world of video games and into real life, they start to feel on edge just like they do when they play intense video games. With anxiety comes increased heart rate and lowered blood pressure. Alexandra Merritt discusses the idea of anxiety and depression stating that “violent media may lead to anxiety and depression because media exposure is traumatizing, just like any other violence exposure. Some scholars even speculated exposure to violent media might increase suicide susceptibility, although evidence did not bear this out” (Merritt, et al.). Moreover, this demonstrates that researchers have proved the idea of anxiety from playing these games can lead to suicidal thoughts. 

Additionally, Merritt goes on to explain how it can lead to these intense actions and concluded that it is from the Uses and Gratifications Theory, which suggests that using violent media causes different moods in others. Merritt explains, “a single example of media could potentially produce very different emotional reactions in different consumers depending upon their motivations and intent. With UGT theory in mind, we might expect the interaction between violent media and children’s moods to be both normative and complex” (Merritt, et al.). In other words, violent media can cause various reactions in society and the interaction between media violence and aggression should not result in one specific psychological issue. Furthermore, media violence can trigger children and adolescents into thinking about traumatic events that have happened to them in the past, which is why they develop symptoms of anxiety and depression. Media violence is an array of many different types of entertainment and specific ones can cause these reactions in society. 

One type of media violence that triggers society is video games. Video games such as Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and much more have been told to create violent behavior in many adolescents and young adults. Studies have shown that while playing video games, people have increased heart rate and aggression. This causes negative behavior because people tend to adapt to the behaviors being shown in these games. Also, they become addicted to playing the games. Most games have an age restriction for mature audiences, but children and adolescents play the games anyway. Game sellers and companies should start asking people for age identification before allowing a person to purchase the game. This will prevent younger children to go online or walk in a store and buy a game that is too violent for them to play. 

Furthermore, violent video game consumption has increased throughout a ten-year time span, proving that there has been more people playing these games today than in the early 1990’s. Jill Richmond and J. Clare Wilson investigate this topic and explain the “long term of violent media can become more aggressive in outlook, perceptual biases, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior than they were before repeated exposure, or would have become without such exposure” (Richmond & Wilson). With this in mind, when people play more violent video games, they have an increasing chance of being more aggressive. Violent video games create a virtual reality that involves inappropriate dialogue, gory graphics, and intense scenarios. This creates a negative behavior in people because they think that this is how the real world is like and conform to the actions their characters present in the game. Lastly, parents should sit down with their children or teenage sons and daughters to discuss the importance of staying focused on more positive activities other than playing on their computers for hours. Dr. Eugene V. Beresin explains that “Parents should limit television to 1-2 hours daily and watch programs with their children, enabling them to address any objectionable material seen. Physicians should make parents and schools “media liberate,” meaning they should understand the risks of exposure to violence and teach children how to interpret what they see on television and in the movies” (Beresin). Finally, video games are not the only platform that advertise violence in media. Movies and entertainment companies are responsible for this issue. 

Entertainment platforms are creating horror, action, and science fiction movies more than ever before. Why? Well, because violence and gore make the most money in the box office. Multiple movies today have encouraged the idea of killing others, fighting bad guys, and war. This creates emotion in multiple age groups, even movies about superheroes promote fighting off the “bad guys” or bullies. But, movies need to be more aware of who their audience really is. Even though there are movie ratings and age restrictions, companies need to realize that parents are going to bring their younger children no matter what their age. Also, children look up to these superheroes as role models, and if they see them killing of “bad guys,” they are going to want to do the same as them. Movies such as “Kick-Ass” and “Harry Potter” have influenced many people, whether that be negatively or positive. 

Additionally, Angie Hunt of Iowa State University discusses the result that researcher Craig A. Anderson has found that “this study clearly contradicts the denialism that currently dominates news media stories on media violence effects” (Hunt). Moreover, Anderson explains that people are in denial of the fact that many people do not want to admit that violent media causes aggression. Also, Hunt wanted to state the idea of how movie companies have created this idea that their movies do not create behavior in people, that they know that the movie is fiction. But, what about those who take it serious? There are a few people that want to imitate how those people act and end up doing just that. Many people should be mindful of the fact that violent and action packed movies can create a negative effect on society. Lastly, movie companies should be more aware of who their audience is. 

Another platform that is well known for violence is television. Television shows have created more series that promote killing, abuse, and drugs. The series that are well known for this is Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, and Mad Men; all of them promote the idea of violence and drug abuse. First, Breaking Bad is a five season show following a character named Walter White, who secretly makes and sells meth. Now, this show has grown to be one of the biggest television series, winning multiple awards. Even though this does not look harmful to society, and some may be thinking, “it is only a T.V. show, how can it be harmful?” Well, the show can cause people to think that drugs and violence is normal to do, and will be influenced by the show. This causes an increase in aggression because drugs and violence enhance a person’s emotional behavior. This will create more intense ideas of causing harm to other people. Researchers, Tena Velki and Gordana Kuterovac Jagodić have expressed that “exposure to media is considered one of the most important exosystem’s risk factor for bullying and other sorts of violence peers” (1). To elaborate, many researchers have stated numerous times that watching and playing video games is not good for society because it causes risky behavior. In addition, American Horror Story and Mad Men have taught people that it is okay to result in drugs as well as glamourized the activity of suicide. This has created people to look up to characters in these shows and follow their actions in real life. Lastly, professionals and doctors have done multiple psychology experiments to see how and why these people react the way they do. They had some surprising results when going over the data they collected.  

Professionals have been studying for years on how the human brain works, and have now tested the brain while interacting with violent video games. The results have consisted of humans wanting to harm others, attention issues, and development of mental disorders. The tests consist of a written survey and interaction with different types of video games and movies. The first test that was done was by Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University and Edward Swing of Arizona Pain. Their experiment consisted of about four hundred and twenty undergraduate students that took a short questionnaire asking about how many hours of media consumption they do in about a week. Also, each participant was asked about their attention habits and personality. The result was that many people expressed to have aggression after watching and playing violent video games. Anderson and Swing have come up with the conclusion that “the aggressive cognition and anger/hostility mediators were associated only with violent media content, attention problems were uniquely associated with overall amount of electronic media consumption and amount of violent media consumption. Thus, violent media content appears to only partially explain the observed media-attention link” (200). This explains the discussion of attention issues while interacting with media; when consuming too much television or video games one can develop ADHD or any other attention deficiencies. Additionally, the researchers explained “this study suggests that attention problems and impulsiveness relate to media violence and aggression, possibly as a mediational pathway” and “attention problems and impulsiveness were more strongly associated with impulsive aggression, as expected” (Anderson and Swing 200). While these statements were made, Anderson and Swing wanted to display that more than media consumption goes into a person becoming aggressive. They explained that a person with impulsive tendencies have more of a chance to develop angry traits than people who do not express those characteristics. Moreover, Anderson has explained that impulsive aggression is associated with ADHD which results in aggressive outbursts and rage. While this exhibits valid conclusions, many people do not agree that violent media causes aggression. 

To introduce an opposing point: many researchers claim that violence in media does not cause aggression in an individual. They think that watching violent games and television shows does not cause people to become angrier because society knows it is not real. While this may be the case, Christopher J. Ferguson has investigated this topic further; they have claimed that the research done by Craig Anderson is vague and does not prove a lot about the connection between aggression and violent media. Ferguson explains “simply focusing on media violence may obscure new research on the potential benefits of modern media, particularly digital media on child development. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare” (75). Christopher J. Ferguson believes that the research that has been done is inconsistent in a way that there is not a valid explanation as to how media violence causes aggression. In addition, he thinks that the authors who experimented on this argument does not explain the positives of modern media, but only is one-sided about the controversial topic. On the other hand, New York Times journalists, Vasilis K. Pozios, Praveen R. Kambam and Eric H. Bender, have expressed “even if violent media are conclusively found to cause real-life violence, we as a society may still decide that we are not willing to regulate violent content. That’s our right. But before we make that decision, we should rely on evidence, not instinct” (1). In other words, researchers should focus more on actual evidence than their own opinion. But what these journalists did not mention in this article is the fact that there has been more recent studies that went on to see how violent technology can affect people in a negative way. These psychologists made sure to have factual evidence to prove that aggressive behavior increases in a person when they play or watch these things. Also, the article was more on the opinionated side, having little proof that media violence does not cause aggression or any other harmful behaviors. Lastly, many people have found that the research has shown how aggression develops in a person. 

The recent research that has been done has shown the relationship between cognitive distortion and levels of aggression. Jill Richmond and J. Claire Wilson have discussed this topic and included their own study on how a person develops aggression while interacting with violent entertainment. They have claimed that it all depends on the “enjoyment created by frequent exposure to violent media results in cognitive distortions, such as, a more acceptable attitude towards violent media” (Richmond and Wilson 351). This shows that if a person is exposed to it for long periods of time, they start to develop traits involuntary; a person does not simply become violent by playing or watching something once, but is developed over time. Comparing this to Anderson’s study, he asked questions that had to do with television consumption habits and a person’s history of attention issues. 

While Richmond and Wilson’s study does take after Anderson’s in that way, they ask people about how much they play violent video games, listen to explicit music, and watch films. Their result was that “findings replicate that of previous research that exposure to violent media does increase aggression. It adds to it, however, by suggesting that the exposure to violent media may facilitate aggressive levels by cognitively distorting the moral context of violence” (Richmond and Wilson 355). Specifically, being exposed to media violence can allow a person to take in the characteristics of the actors in the game. This allows the player to take in their negative behaviors and start acting like them towards others in the real world. While this may be the case, many people believe that gamers know that the game is not real. Richmond and Wilson state “in violent media the victims may be actors, the blood may be fake, but for some the image portrayed is all too real” (356). This goes to show that people need to be careful with what they are interacting with because they might get caught up in the fake reality that is violent entertainment.

In conclusion, researchers have studied this case for many years now, coming up with different hypothesis. Many believe that it is the way a person grew up, while others think it is the consumption that has to do with people becoming violent. The truth remains that violent media does cause aggression, and mental health issues. The cause of this conclusion is the entertainment industry, from evil video games to gory horror films, they have created a franchise that negatively impacts society’s mental health. Technology is a huge part of today, and is seen all over the world. As hard as one tries, there is no way to escape technology. While there are positive ways that technology has changed, it is the entertainment companies that create the problem. To the people who are not avid video gamers, they know that the game is not real. But to people who play games for many hours in a day, they might start to think it is reality. Researchers have claimed to find that many people believe that when they are watching video games, they have increased heart rate and negative emotional behavior. Finally, there is still an ongoing argument about this topic. More research should be done to evaluate what is going on in a person’s mind when playing or watching violent media. Media violence negatively affects behavior because it causes a terrible change in people and should be discussed by doctors, and big name entertainment companies.  Moreover, it causes a person to think more violently than an average person, which should not be the end result for anybody. 
