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Why You Should Go Cold Turkey On Violent Media
Feeling unsafe in America? Run, don’t walk, from glorified media violence.
Are you plagued by vague feelings of persistent danger?
Do you fear violence and violent crime on a near-constant or ongoing basis, in spite of the fact that neither you nor anyone you know personally has ever been the victim of a violent crime?
Can you call to mind the “Law & Order” theme song? Or that unique “chime” sound effect it has? You know, the one that sounds like something in between a book being thrown at someone, a judge’s gavel rapping sharply, and the clang of prison bars snapping shut on a long sentence.
If you answered “yes” to these questions, glorified violence in entertainment- not the state of the world- may be to blame.
Whether your particular poison is Law & Order: CSI, SVU, or some other “based on real life”, “ripped from today’s headlines” fictionalized crime series; or documentary-type procedurals like the “First 48”, your media habits may be impacting more than you realize.
The foremost problem with this type of entertainment is that you aren’t getting the full story and you think you are.
Consider the world’s first and longest-running reality crime drama: Cops.