Social Skills, Violence Media Effect Children . Essay

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social skills, violence media effect children . The paper allowed include personal opinions .

There is much controversy regarding children and the effects that the media world has on the way that they perceive society. The fact that young people are vulnerable makes it difficult for them to filter and interpret information. This leads to them changing their understanding of the social order and of attitudes that they need to employ in order to integrate more easily. More and more tutors report cases of children losing their social skills consequent to prolonged exposure to media devices. A significant body of evidence demonstrates that violence in the media can be especially influential on young individuals, this being reflected by the fact that children who watch a lot of violence and play violent video games are more likely to be aggressive.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has emphasized that the time of media exposure needs to be limited in the case of children, particularly when concerning children who are less than two years old. Prolonged television exposure was associated with the child being less talented in social skills. "A number of studies have demonstrated negative effects of heavy television viewing in early childhood on a range of subsequent health and developmental outcomes including obesity, poor cognitive skills, and irregular sleeping patterns" (Mistry, Minkovitz, Strobino, and Borzekowski).

There is a complex relationship between children's exposure to media devices and their subsequent behavior, but it is difficult to analyze it because there are cases where children are able to filter information and thus manage to avoid being negatively influenced. Studies have shown that even though in most cases the media world has an effect on how children perceive the world, it is wrong to generalize because there are also situations when particular children react different from the rest when coming across certain concepts.

Video games are presently one of the favorite media devices that children choose with the purpose of entertaining themselves. Parents often fail to comprehend the effects that these games have on their children and simply feel satisfied knowing that kids stay inside and are thus unlikely to interact with criminal environments on the streets. Violent video games apparently desensitize children and influence them to feel that life is not as valuable as people are inclined to think. Video games provide children with the opportunity to release tension they accumulate during the day while in school or with friends. Video game fanatics who feel frustration with regard to a particular concept are likely to acknowledge that nothing beats blowing off some steam while killing random people in a video game.

Most violent video games provide players with the feeling that violence is always an efficient tool to resolve a problem. The fact that criminals are not penalized for their actions in most cases involving video games further contributes to having children believe that it is important for them to use aggressive behavior in conditions where they need to act rapidly.

While the masses are generally inclined to ignore the media and video games in particular when they think about convicted murderers, the reality is that many of the individuals belonging to this group have trained in video games before they actually went on to become killers. Lee Malvo, the adolescent D.C. sniper apparently learned how to kill by playing Halo on his Xbox. Playing the game made it easier for him to kill real people, as he got accustomed to thinking of committing murder as being no different from killing a video game character. He believed that this would have no repercussions and that both him and the person dying would simply perform their roles in the bigger scheme of things. He virtually came to think that there was nothing wrong with him murdering people, as they deserved it and as their feelings were practically inexistent (Kutner & Olson 6).

Many parents have a tendency to be happy when they see their children being proficient in internet related matters and the fact that some individuals are active members of social networks can have their tutors believe that their children are perfectly normal.

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However, it is important for people to be able to differentiate between real-life social skills and online social skills. A great deal of adolescents who have trouble making friends use online devices with the purpose of reaching their goals. Research shows that "youth who are less socially adept use social networking websites to self-disclose and make new friends when they might be too shy to do so in real life" (Online Social Networking's Effect on Adolescent Social Development 2).

Parents are likely to be surprised when asking their children why they enjoy interacting with media devices containing violence. Most children choose to play video games, for example, because they have the opportunity to be in control of a world that they create, because they feel pressured by their peers to do so, and simply because they consider them to be fun. When taking into account violent video games, however, the majority of boys are probable to emphasize the fact that they like to shoot guns and that they like weapons in general.

While children constantly lobby with regard to how violent video games have nothing to do with reality and are thus harmless, they also put across significant interest in playing games that are more realistic. Adults can learn important information as a result of inquiring children regarding the motives why they believe some games to be better than others. This information can reveal important details concerning their problems, their needs, and their interests.

Technology is mainly responsible for the rapid progress that society has experienced in recent years, but it is also accountable for many problems people come across today. Electronic media is present in most households in the developed world and it is thus essential for parents to be able to observe and control the information that their children access while on their computers, cell phones, or tablets. Progress is relatively responsible for creating more complex problems and for making it difficult for tutors to address problems that children go through as a result of interacting with diverse media devices. "Historically, the United States has reached a point where most of children's social experiences no longer consist of face-to-face interactions with other people" (Wilson 88).

Children are generally more likely to put across empathy when compared to adults and this means that they are probable to identify with individuals that they see while playing video games or by watching a motion picture. The fact that society has experienced rapid progress in recent years has a negative effect on information regarding long-term effect of media devices on children. Experts know very limited regarding this topic and it is thus difficult for them to instruct tutors concerning the attitudes they need to employ toward their children's interaction with media devices.

As previously mentioned, many tutors have the tendency to consider that their children are perfectly capable to integrate on a social level because they are very popular on social networks. However, people often fail to see beyond appearances and actually encourage behaviors that can socially alienate their children. Many children are likely to lose their ability to interact on a personal level because they live in a world where they are only proficient in putting across socially acceptable behavior while online. It is very important for tutors and educators to focus on instructing children concerning the attitudes that they need to employ with regard to social networking services. Children practically need to understand that being accepted by their peers while online is not necessarily the same as having a lot of friends (Online Social Networking's Effect on Adolescent Social Development 4).

Society needs to get actively involved in….....

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