Media Violence and American Youth

Imagine a generation of young people who are shocked by nothing. Imagine a group of young people who have seen and can bear the grotesque and unnecessarily violent to the point where they consider it the norm. This is my generation, born between 1981 and 1985, which I like to call “generation numb.” Through movies, music, and other media my peers have been bombarded by carefully marketed, gratuitous violence, and with each viewing of such violence it becomes more and more difficult to shock us. However, the corporate media is more than happy to meet our new shock levels if a profit can be made. My generation is becoming increasingly indifferent to violent acts which should disturb us, and our sense of reality is breaking down, creating peril for my peers in the present and the future. We tolerate violence and, in the process, become more violent ourselves.

The root of this desensitization lies not so much in the violence of war, which my generation did not truly begin to experience until recently, but gratuitous violence. Gratuitous violence is fighting or gore which is “uncalled-for,” “unjustified,” of “without need or cause.” (“violence.”). Th

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In 1979, the first of the Alien films was released. In the late 90’s came the hand-to-hand combat of the Chinese Jackie Chan movies, which have set the tone for the type of violence my generation craves in movies today. The first violent movie I ever saw was Jaws when it made its network premier. Consequence not only means punishment, but also injury or death.

Another problem is that not all of this desensitization is coming from the media. I had to sneak out to see movies such as Seven and the notorious Pulp Fiction.

The same magazine, Maxim, uses violence as a source of humor, further desensitizing males to the utter atrocity of many, if not all, forms of violence. That same year, one year after I was born, the far less sophisticated but bloodier Nightmare on Elm Street was released. The children of my generation became the children of the media moguls.

The entertainment industry did not limit itself to television and films. Sadly, some children tried to imitate dangerous so-called wrestling moves from the WWF and WCW with their own bodies. It seems that on television or is movies today, a woman must either be the victim or a masculine, angry, confrontational figure like Xena.

In the medium of television, violence was largely relegated to prime time in the 80’s, so my exposure was minimal.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 2416
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

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