Television: The Great Mind-Altering Drug

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that today's youth has become so accustomed to the high-speed flow of the average television production that a continuous stream of sensory stimulation has become essential to hold their attention. The author points out that, shockingly, the world that children see on television and in a host of other media is even more violent than that which is offered for the entertainment of adults. Children's programming is fifty to sixty times more violent than adult prime time fare, with some children's cartoons averaging as many as eighty violent acts in a single hour. The paper warns that an never- ending battle for greater profits creates an ever-escalating cycle of more and more graphic and more and more offensive images.

From the Paper:

"Indeed, physical and sexual violence come to seem so natural and ever present that brutality becomes the natural response for a person so conditioned. This is not merely to say that such influences create a world-view of a society peopled with murderous thugs and sexual deviants. Rather, repeated exposure to such violent and obscene images provokes a violent response even when a real threat is lacking. The child who watches a television or movie "anti-hero" pull out a gun in a petty argument is learning an inappropriate response to a situation. Rock and film stars, many of whom are touted as teen idols, use foul language, and dress and act in what would normally be considered an obscene and offensive manner. Perhaps the worst of the recent offenders is MTV's The Osbournes. In this "reality series," cameras are allowed into the home of an aging rock star and his family. The show is replete with crude language and off-color comments and gestures. While the Osbournes are indeed a family unit, the picture of family life that they present is hardly the most desirable. Vulgarity for vulgarity's sake, lewdness and physical violence i.e. the throwing of objects in anger, all contribute to a picture of family life that is not suitable for impressionable youngsters. And what is worse, the cache of Ozzy Osbourne's rock star status only enhances the desire of children to imitate the actions of him and his family. Once again, counterculture and anti-social behavior are presented as desirable, indeed as the norm."

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