Kids' viewing of TV violence linked to aggression as adults

To paraphrase David Cross:

What was that TV show Hitler used to watch?

What was that video game Genghis Khan was always playing?

 

time to pass the buck.....hmm who gets it this time?

 

I have no doubt that too much television is unhealthy for children. But studies like this don't isolate television viewing as a factor.

 

Who's passing the buck? The article demonstrates that parents and caregivers should find proactive activities for their children for better development. What could you possibly have against that?

 

Beep-beep


So who can we sue now? Is it the networks or the production companies who made the shows?

 

My point (and I think Cross') exactly.

 

They got to see violence up close and personal. Without his time at the front in WW1, Corporal Scdhickelgruber would probably have been just another failed artist in Vienna who eventually got himself a real job.

While I don't think that TV automaticaly turns us all into either murderous sociopaths or zombies, I also think that showing kids a virtually non-stop kaleidoscope of violence, especially when presented as the solution to all problems, can't help but have a coarsening effect that is going to show up in society somehow. Rather than manifesting itself in a nation of active brawlers and serial killers, however, I think it shows up as a nation that has been numbed to the point of apathy and acceptance of high levels of violence as "normal".

 

I'm not going to dispute the claims made in the study. It's as simple as ABC, okay. Kids' minds are sponges. If you portray images of violence to them for 3-6 hours a day while they are very young they are going to become inured to violence, see violence as a correct solution to problems, etc. Chirst, B. F. Skinner figured this stuff out over seventy years ago.

Blaming the media is a cop out, though. The blame lies with PARENTS WHO ALLOW THIER CHILDREN TO WATCH ANY TV FOR MORE THAN A COUPLE OF HOURS A DAY.

I have three kids, 1 - 3 - 5. Keeping up with them and trying to raise them to be good kids is the hardest job I've ever had bar none, and that includes several summers walking beans and detasseling corn. It is perfectly understandable for parents to check out and just chuck 'em in front of the TV. God knows I want to all the freakin' time. I guess the difference between me and them is that I can't live with myself when I do.

Go and watch a young child who's been watching TV for a couple of hours straight. Look real hard at them. Notice the completely slack look? The glazed eyes? Brain just sucking up every last bit of crap that is being shoved out of the babble box? It's fVcking criminal to warp a lovely young mind like that. All they want is to learn and find out about things. And they get ... I don't know, I don't even turn on Cartoon Network. But it ain't right I tell you.

Ouch. Rant off.

 

There is truth here as long as blaming all parents doesn't become a cop out either. Sure, there are bad, lazyass parents who don't give a crap and figure the TV is their babysitter.

Unfortunately, a lot of parents are stuck working like dogs to try to get by, especially single/divorced moms. They don't necessarily have the time or energy after the workday to spend great amounts of quality time with Junior.

As long as you take that into consideration, your answer is OK.

 

nothing but blaming TV for violence/agression is stupid that is my entitled opinion. if you're going to blame the TV for anything then blame it for fat kids. but even then it's the parents fault for not getting their kids envolved in TV and eating healthy. When i see little kids at stores and stuff it's crazy how big they are. it's really a shame.

 

Take what into consideration? There's no excuse for letting your kid watch hours of tv a day- I don't care how hard or long a parent works.

 

In related news, this past week it was reported that there is a difference between blacks and whites when it comes to TV and health.

Whites that watch more than 2 hours a day are less healthy than blacks who watch the same amount. Be it biological or whatever, what can be really made from this?

I think it is some backhanded way to make blacks more comfortable with wasting time on the tube and to get whites into activity. Just the man keeping us down.

As far as this latest finding, NPR had it on today and I find it rather funny. Charles Angles and the 6 million dollar man are tame when compared to what is on today! God help us.

Excuse me while I run to pull the plug on the set...da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!

 

Easy for you and me to say.

 

Keep the Schickelgruber carpet-muncher out of this!!!! Statement 1 is most certainly true. There was a much lower life expectancy and a much more Hobbesian philosophy of looking at life, especially in Temujin or Tamberlaine's time or in the time of Gustavus Adolphus.
Hitler would have been a psychotic megalomaniac no matter what time period he was born into

 

No, it's not easy. My wife and I spend a lot of time and effort and brainpower restricting our three-year-old's television access. It's a difficult thing to do. Because they WANT to watch tv at all hours of the day.

 

No it's not.... send your kid out to play with the neighbors, enroll them in after school programs, sign them up for sports teams, enroll them in after school academic programs.

Finally, open up a book and read with them. How hard can that be? All you have to do is sit your a$$ down on the recliner and put them on your lap.

 

i only got to watch PBS during lunch. and cartoons after school but i was always a fan of going outside or i had sports practice so i never had time for tv. Sports was my anti-tv and will probably be my kids too.

 

Volumes and gravity of violence aside, what seems most important to this report seems to be the rewards factor.

When violent acts are rewarded by getting the girl, catching the bad guy and being the hero, then it seems our personal value systems are skewed.

I can see the points being made here as they reflect the inner problem. If the kids are watching TV, that is time you, the parent, are not teaching, talking or at least monitoring the kids. TV is rather the symptom and maybe not the problem. It is like saying, a couple needs a divorce because they argue too much and not asking why they argue.

 

Can you all sign my online petition to get FSW and GolTV?

 

Um, so? Even if this were true, what does it have to do with anything? Genghis Kahn's "Playstation" as a kid was the violent example of the adults he watched as they pillaged and raided. A society that glorifies violence will produce violent people. You don't have to be Carl Jung to understand that.

Hitler certainly had issues but had he lived up in a more peaceful, prosperous time and place than Germany during the war and post-war years, those issues would probably not have been so free to manifest themselves the way they did.

 

That's great if you live someplace where Junior won't be out with the gangs or the potential victim of a drive-by. Or if you live where they have after-school programs. Not everyone lives in a wealthy suburb, you know.

You don't have kids, do you?

 

I agree with this. A child who watches tv all day is most likely in an unhealthy environment economically and socially.

 

You both work two physcially demanding minimum wage jobs to get by? Really? How do you have the time to post here so much then?

Look, all I'm saying is that not everyone has the same resources that you do in terms to time or money to help them get around the problem even if they mean well. If we as a society provided more options for such people, my bet is that most of them would gladly accept the help. Instead, we'd rather waste billions on an unnecessary war against Iraq. Go figure.

 

I like to go into tunnels, too!

It would have worked better if you said "and", but that doesn't matter.

I wonder how many of you are ready to buy Madonna's new children's book?