Violence is everywhere even on my blog! [media meditation #2]

“Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine.” (Blow) Blow is the story of George Jung the man who established the American cocaine market in the 1970's. The movie follows his life and how through selling marijuana and eventually cocaine he managed to gain popularity, money, and an amazing life. When I first watched Blow I thought “wow what I would give to have his life.” It is very easy to feel this way when watching movies and indulging in media like this and many teens and preteens feel the same way. Movies, music, video games, and TV all portray gangs, bank robbers, and what society would deem as criminals, as a hero and someone to aspire to be. We hear music wherever we go, in stores, cars, and restaurants it is very influential. Gangster rap is very popular with teens; they talk about gang violence and drug use. Crime related and violent video games can promote violence in kids and cause them to be more comfortable with the idea and act of crime. Books for centuries have been written about pirates, bank robbers, gangs, and organized crime. Grand Theft Auto is a very popular video game series in which the player plays gang members and mobsters. Television is also guilty of this twisted view for the youth, the HBO series Weeds follows a family that encounters a money problem, and to keep the life that they have they are forced to sell marijuana. Many people believe, as well as I agree that the portrayal of these negative role models is polluting the youth of America.


This is what kids do on their free time playing video games.



People have been drawn towards violence for thousands of years. The roman coliseum was built for mainly violent and gruesome shows; there were hundreds of pointless killings just for entertainment. The fact is that violence and crime is everywhere in life and media and it will never go away. In a way it is a part of our culture and fighting it will limit the amount and level of it in the media but it will not completely go away. The best thing we can do is try to shelter our children from over exposure of violence and crime until they have a strong understanding of right and wrong. This will give them the ideals and views that will allow them to engage in these forms of media without taking them seriously. When I was a child my parents didn’t allow me to play violent games or watch certain programs because they felt that it would give me the wrong picture about violence and crime. This works for most but some people will end up bad anyways and there is no point in stressing over something that we cant control.