Reel Life vs. Real Life
Since my booklist is all about murder mysteries, and due to all the violence that takes place in the world on a daily basis, I want to know how you guys, the youth of the city, feel about life imitating art. The debate on whether violent video games increase the probability of violence in the player in real life has been raging for years, but how does this extend to books? Television? Movies?
Do you think books and movies have an impact on real life violence? I have always been on the fence about this one. Personally, I really enjoy a good murder mystery, but I am not a violent person. My first response is never to fight, and honestly, I can’t wrap my head around why people do. For me, it doesn’t seem to ever resolve anything, so why waste all that time and energy? Then there is the issue of violence against innocent people. For example, the movie theatre shooting in Colorado, or the numerous shootings that take place at schools, colleges and universities.
On the flip side, do you think this extends to positive behaviours as well? Would watching something positive on the screen, or reading about something positive, evoke feelings of positivity in the person? If you were to see someone do a good deed, or read about it, would you be more inclined to do good as well? Or, does it all come down to individual personality, where some individuals are more likely to behave in a negative manner, while others will be positive, regardless of what is going on around them? Is it nature (behavior is innate) or nurture (behavior is learned)?
What are your feelings on the topic? Do you think behavior is learned, or is it something inside of a person that determines whether they will behave in a certain way, regardless of their surroundings?
4 thoughts on “Reel Life vs. Real Life”
Well, I believe this all attributes to the person itself, a naive gullible person would be prone to believe that violence in the media is just like real life, while a more sensible person would think otherwise. However, I suppose since teens minds aren’t fully developed nor as sensible, that the books and movies in the media does influence us to some extent.
I think that maybe we all have a predisposition to be a certain way, but as we grow up certain events, moments or people in our lives can shape us differently and change our behiour and ways of thinking. However, I think that the way that we are predisposed to be is stronger than those events. Even if you’ve had a bad childhood and you are a non-violent person, the negative events of your past won’t completely change who you are, even if you do go “bad” I think that you’ll be able to stop yourself and come back to your senses at one point.
Thanks for your opinions Hyerin. It’s one of those questions that really has no answer. We are fall under the influence of something at some point in our lives (whether it be the music we listen to, the books we read, or the clothes we wear), but I guess the harm lies when the action elicited poses a danger to others. Copying what a character or actor wears can’t really hurt anyone (perhaps with the exception of your wallet!), but copying a serial killer from a book/movie would be a completely different story.
Hi Alexandra, great point. I think we see this a lot in movie and book characters, when the bad guy really isn’t that bad, or ends up being one of the good guys in the end. I guess my post on the ‘baddies we love to hate’ illustrates this to a certain degree. All these characters have redeeming points, and usually there is a reason they turn bad. Like you said, they do have that goodness in them, so they can come back to it at some point. I know that I’m referring to fictional material and characters here, but maybe, on some level, it relates to real life?