When asked about today’s society, the first thing that pops into my head is anything related to a screen. It could be a smartphone, laptop, or even a tv. We have made it normal to expect instant results, which is why tv streaming, gaming, and social media companies have become all the rage. The more and more we use it, technology is increasingly affecting the amount of violence in our world today. The age we use it, content we watch, and amount of time we spend locked in, also plays a big part. With the help of many researchers and studies, we are beginning to discover exactly how much the media is changing our everyday lives.

For so long, it has been common to put a kid in front of a screen in order to keep them occupied. This often starts at a very young age because it’s simply just easy. A Television & Health article states that, “The number of murders an average child sees on TV by the time they finish elementary school is around 8,000. By the age of 18, an average person has seen 200,000 acts of violence from the TV screen alone.” This is harmful because of something called social cognitive observational learning theory; it means that we all learn through observing, modeling, and imitating things as well as others around us. I believe a lot of us need to be more aware of it when around little kids.

Kendra Cherry, from a Very Well Mind, explains a well known study called the “Bobo Doll Experiment”, conducted in 1963 by Albert Bandura. The social cognitive theory was put to the test. Preschoolers were shown a video of adults violently hitting, kicking, and sitting on a doll. After the video, they were sent to a toy room. Among the toys was an identical looking doll. Right away, the children started hitting, kicking, and beating the doll exactly as the video had shown. Studies like this have proven that when kids are shown violent behavior, it causes short and sometimes even long term effects. So, when a young child is introduced to something they might not be ready for, it most likely will have a negative effect.

Letting a child watch movies or shows is not a big deal, what matters is the content they are being shown. Now, of course on every video game, app, movie or show, there are ratings. That doesn’t always stop the G and PG rated movies and shows that most kids are watching to have harmless looking aggression. In a Daily Mail article written by Laura Clark, the education correspondent, she states that “Research has discovered that animated shows aimed at youngsters often have more brutality than programs broadcasted for general audiences.” We must start considering that what we might perceive as clean and okay to watch, still might be too much for a toddler. Now, this isn’t the last factor to contribute to the big idea.

Another important part in reducing the media from affecting violence is simply the amount of time we spend on technology. In a 2016 CNN article, written by Jacqueline Howard, it states that “On average, a person spends 10 hours and 39 minutes of their day on technology. Most of us don’t even realize how much we actually depend on devices such as phones and computers.” By cutting down on how much time we stare at our screens, we will gradually come to the realization that there’s no need for activities like excessive gaming or Netflix binging. That would also start positively affecting the amount of violence children are introduced to unnecessarily early.
As a society we are introduced to technology at such a young age that the content typically tends to mature faster than it should. As a result, the amount of usage should be lessened in order to benefit in any way. Who knows, maybe part of the answer to attacks and crimes is all in what a child is allowed to watch. There will probably never be a day where violence in technology is totally hidden from children but little by little we can all do our part to help out and reduce exposure as much as possible.