The TV Made Me Do It

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!                 April 4, 2014

By author Bryce A Baker

 

The TV Made Me Do It

 

Undoubtedly, most of us have watched TV or been to a movie or two. We have read comic books or utilized other means of absorbing mental stimulation from a media format.

This brings up a subject that has been controversial for years. ‘What, if any, influence has subject matter or character portrayal have on individuals or groups?’

As a writer I know for a fact that media does coerce us into alternate understandings and reaction. For instance, children emulate what they see in cartoons or television programing whether they be pro or con. Children function differently when they have taken into their own world their hero or mentor.

Back in the fifties and sixties the Three Stooges were accepted so much that children were hitting other children over the head with hammers believing that it is was only an opportunity for a laugh. The show eventually was banned.

Since then, we and our children have been inundated with books, TV shows, movies and the worst INFLUENCE, video games that are riddled with violence, along with a sociopathic escape from reality. Death or injury has become surreal to some individuals, resulting in actual events. 

Children do have a positive influence with comic heroes fortunately, and it does form a platform to adulthood.

The human mind is a fragile mass of a sponge like substance that absorbs all that is seen and heard. It analyzes the input then stores the data in pockets of negative or positive files to be operational when the time warrants. If the individual can be programmed to function without restraint or a conscience base, then bad things are bound to occur.

As adult’s, television hypnotizes us to follow what product or service we cannot live without. So the immature mind isn’t the only target.

An excerpt from my book ‘Ghosts of Time’: “Within the closed capsule of the human mind, is a complex stratosphere of social programming. We believe what is told to us, even when it is unconfirmed or unreasonable.”

Trying to introduce more positive, progressive subject matter in the media would develop more productive people. In this liberal world we are going to self-destruct from alternate realities.

Okay! I know… this coming from a person that writes books that do contain some violence. But my books do not contain swearing and the content shows the difference between good and evil. In my book ‘Knight Horse’, there are two young boys talking about their action hero figures. Their conversation demonstrates that most young people seek out the good.

There is no possible way to shift back to what was referred to as censorship, but we could provide an understanding to our children that there is a difference. In real life, we don’t get a ‘RESET’ button. Once the ‘GAME OVER’ appears, there is no second chance.  

Please... CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG! 

Bryce A Baker

www.bryceabaker.com