Violence ... What is it Good For?

Can we make our negative emotions beneficial?

Of course, we do not want our children to be violent. Teaching boys and girls to solve their problems by throwing a few punches is not something any modern parent wants to do. However, I agree with Jones when he asserts in his essay, Violent Media is Good for Kids that there is a certain amount of exploration of emotion and exposure that must occur in order for children to develop into lucid, realistic adults.

 

Pictured: A game that children should not play, but surprisingly, some do anyway.

There is, however, some rules to this idea. While comical violence as that pictured in children's comic books and manga are alright, we do risk overexposure if the media is overtly violent. For example, a game that includes sex and sexual acts is not appropriate for children, as it can warp their perspective on consent and give them false ideologies on the process of procreation. A little blood is okay for children, as most experience a little blood as they fall and scrape themselves. Overly graphic depictions of death and blood can lead to an unhealthy obsession with violence.

Our nature as human beings causes us to be naturally interested with the macabre, and often thinking about violence or witnessing it often leads to an adrenaline rush. Because our brains naturally mirror the chemical reactions of a being we are witnessing, also known as empathy, this leads to an adrenaline rush being felt. We do not want children to look to this kind of adrenaline rush for stimulation. They may grow to believe that watching and/or enacting killing is the best way to achieve this feeling. 

We must be careful when finding a good compromise between helping children grow and warping them. I do not believe that completely cutting them off is the solution and that there are ways we can find a good in-between.



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