Rage-Filled Little Children

As I was reading "Violent Media is Good for Kids" by Gerard Jones I started to remember my own childhood experiences with violent media. After playing Grand Theft Auto I never felt urges to go steal my parents car and cause havoc across my town, but that's just me. Although I do agree with Gerard and his theory that violent media can be good for kids, it can also be bad for some children under certain circumstances. I also think that the program he started called Power Play is a very good and helpful program. I only wish that when I was a kid there was a program that I could go to and listen to some violent stories of heroes and villains to better myself. I think the concept to master a young child's rage is a good one, because when I was growing up I had a friend who enjoyed killing squirrels and birds with his pellet gun. He could have used this program to help control his rage. After i finished reading this article it reminded me of this video:                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcqOgnQyXp4

As entertaining as this video may be this is also an example of how violent media could affect children in a negative way. So what Gerard is doing in his program to help kids master their rage is very good for the future.Violence in media is inescapable because violence is one of the main forms of entertainment that people enjoy to watch. Children are bound to see violent images, so introducing violent stories to them and teaching them how to control their inner rage to copy these media images is completely the way to go about it.

Another article that grabbed my attention was "Media violence may be real culprit behind Virginia Tech Tragedy" by Tim Miley because I completely disagree with this idea. We can not blame the media for violent tragedies that occur because without it we would all lose character. The shootings at Virginia Tech was probably just one individual who was not completely sane and decided to act upon the rage that filled his veins. Any other adult at that age could easily control their rage if life seems to be putting them down. So blaming the media for violent tragedies because of one individual seems a little out of whack to me.

In conclusion, through my readings in this chapter I have found that violent media is not only good for kids but it can also be helpful to them. Every child needs a little inner courage by relating to a superhero that might perform some violent acts in his crime fighting. Shielding kids from violent media will only make them soft and by the time they become mature people will be waltzing all over their pride in the real world. Although encouraging violent media may not be the greatest of ideas but to just let a child watch what interests them is only going to benefit his character. The End. ( I did that because there was only 498 words)