Advanced Technology, Violence, and Solutions Essaypilot

Discuss some ways that advances in technology unintentionally create new types of violence in contemporary society. Remember to theorize/conceptualize this issue and provide potential solutions. Technology can be defined as the use and application scientific tools to solve various problems Technological advancements and the increased use of information technology has improved the social and economic status of many over the recent past. However, this has been accompanied by unintentional violence resulting from the technological advancement in the society today. The said violence might not result from the use of technology directly, but the route course may be traced back to the advancement of technology. In this case, I will look into the electronic media violence. This is because technology has influenced most of the recently displayed behaviors and activities exhibited and conducted by the youths in our society through the electronic media devices and services. Electronic media violence This is a type of violence that arises from the adverse effects resulting from the use of the electronic media by the children and the youths in the society for an extended period. It has been found that their impact is evidenced in the current behaviors of the youth as they interact with their peers in the society. Studies reveal that electronic media is one of the leading causes of violence in our society today. Exposure to more violence related programmes on television, video games, movies, over the internet and cell phones increases the chances of violent behaviors of the individuals who view the said programmes. Exposure to such videos or programmes has psychological effects both in the long and short run as explained by the psychological theory. The theory explains the detrimental effects resulting from the exposure to such violence. In the society today, children’s central role has been assumed by television, radio, videos, movies, video games, computer networks and cel l phones. The use of this electronic media may have a positive impact on that cell phone has eased communication activities of individuals within the society and the rest of the world, computer networks have enabled linkage of computers thus allowing information sharing between different regions and departments. With all these benefits enjoyed, there are also some unintended detrimental effects to the members of the society. The mass media has a significant impact on the behaviors, beliefs, and values of our children. The research conducted shows that exposure to violent movies, video games and on television increases the chances of being violent on the part of the viewer just as being raised up in an environment that is filled with real violence rises chances of violent behavior. The increased use of chat rooms, text messaging, mobile phones and e-mails by the youth has created new social interaction sites in which aggression may take place, and victimization of youths can occur due to the breakage of the old boundaries of community, neighbourhood, and family that might have offered protection to our youth in some way in the past by the new venues. The electronic communication has made it harder to protect the youths as well as introducing severe psychological threats to them at the same time. It has also made it harder to protect the youth from the many dangers and exposing many of them to them to more threats that only a few might have experienced in the past. With this, not just kids with wrong friends are likely to be exposed to dangerous things when they finally go out to the streets, but there is a lousy virtual street that is available to the youths currently. The psychological theories that explain why and how media violence is a threat also explain why the violence observation in the real world among peers, within the community, and among the family also stimulates aggressive acts in the observer. The short and long-term effects of the violent contents usually depend on the time displacement effects that involvement in the media may have on children. Displacement effects are defined as the role of mass media in displacing other activities that the child may have been involved in that may have changed the risk of specific behaviors. This may include watching a movie or playing video games instead of reading a novel or playing soccer with friends. The theories further state that the short term effects of media violence exposure are due to three processes; arousal process, priming process and mimicking of specific behavior. Priming can be defined as the process through which activation is spreading in the neural network of the brain from th e part representing an external engaged stimulus triggers another brain node representing a behavior, emotion or cognition. Arousal, on the other hand, can be defined as the extent that the presentation of the mass media arouses the observer; aggressive act may become more likely in the short run due to excitation and general arousal. Lastly, mimicry which is the imitation of a specific behavior observed by an individual. This has been dramatically witnessing in young children who tend to copy anything they see and hear at any given point of time. Exposure to mass media has affected more children and youths in several ways that have raised the alarm over what should be done to control the situation yet the same mass media is also of much importance to them in their daily activities and lives in general. The primary intention of the print media was to relay essential messages and connection between people and regions, mobile phones, for example, was majorly assembled for communication purposes, but in the society today it is used for more activities other than just communication. In any social set up where youths try to actualize whatever they watch on television, movies or the video games there will be no peace, and this will lead to a lot of clashes in the community. Electronic media has led to an erosion of the culture in the society as most people exposed to them tend to adopt the lifestyle of the actors in various movies and thereby to abandon their native culture in the long run. Several ways can be used to protect the young children and youths from the adverse effect of the mass media. This should be done to help the children since television exposes them to adverts like the ones trying to make cigarettes smokers look more powerful and healthier which may influence them to try consuming such products. Control measures Parents should be responsible enough and monitor the limit of their childrens exposure to the media, check the ratings of the movies to ensure that their children are watching movies that are more appropriate to their age. Always try to find out what your children are doing on the internet when they are at home just to ensure that they are doing the right thing at all time. This will enable the parent to prevent the children from accessing undesirable sites that may expose them to some of the unwanted acts leading to the violence. Parents can engage their children in some constructive activities such as cleaning, internal challenges probably on journals; encourage playing certain games with friends or parents during their free time at home. Educating the children on the possible adverse effect of the use of mass media and provide them with alternatives to the same. Whenever parents spend more time with their children, they can control whatever they do or access most of the time. Henc e, parents are encouraged to do so and help their children at earlier stages of their lives.