The Indirect Gun Pressure From The Media On Society

The clock strikes 8pm the pendulum moves from left to right, families emerge out of their rooms, kids get off their phones, parents turn off the news, and they all gather in the living room to watch a family movie. All of these family members leave one media just to move onto the next.

Media. It's a powerful thing, especially in the 21st century we see everyone being influenced by the media in some sort, not only parents, but even young kids and adolescents. Kids these days have phones where they are on social media apps, parents who are watching TV everyone is on some sort of media, may it be social media, regular media (news), movies, and video games. But with so many people being on so many different types of media’s starts raising questions such as how are these different types of media having an effect on us the audience of this? And the answer is not what many expect and I sure did not think the answer is true but as a matter of fact it is true, media does have an impact on our lives, the level of impact may differ from person to person but it definitely has an impact on us, but the impact it has on us is more of a pressure, somewhat like peer pressure but in this case it is media pressure. Media is one of the most controversial topics, and along with that is the issue of gun violence but what many fail to notice is that both these issues are interconnected, in our day and age we notice a rising gun violence rate, and at the same time there are more and more people exposed to the media they are correlated. Although some might think that the rising rate of gun violence is due to our population increasing they fail to notice that most gun violence cases involve the gunner exposed to violent media they are pressured into getting these guns and use them because different medias give them different reasons to use guns. The three biggest media contributors pressuring our society into getting guns are the video game industry, social media industry, and movie industry. But these media’s don't have to stop they just have to be controlled and monitored by governments so that the public citizens are not pressured into getting guns.

“Alex!” called his mom. He got off his couch and turned off his console he way playing Call of Duty on and headed downstairs for dinner.

First of the violent video game industry is one of the most entertaining media industries and has over 40 million violent video gamers. Let's get some context violent shooters have always been a fun thing even when it's not video games, many adults have played with toy guns such as nerf etc, and while those were all fun and games, but as the earth started revolutionizing we started to simulate these games through a TV or a computer, and as the years have gone on the aim of these games is no longer to have a fun experience and provide entertainment, it's become more serious but what the gamers don't often understand is that the new level of seriousness these games have reached is not real anymore, it's fiction, many don't understand this distinction fully thus getting pressured into getting guns. The violent video games industry have slowly yet steadily been moving away from the traditional World War battles from showing how brutal guns, and how much of harm it can do not only to a person or family, but to an entire nation, they are now more fictional but portray guns in a serious way. According to Columbine the mass shooters of the school were big fans of the game “Doom” this is a FPS game where your status rank increases as you kill people. David Cullen (author of Columbine) describes them as “acting out dark digital fantasies” This suggests that these students were acting out a dark fantasy from the game “Doom” that David Cullen mentions later on in the book. But how did they get this dark fantasy is the real question, and this was through the pressure the game put on Eric. Cullen described Eric as “one that always wanted to go with the flow and be the cool kid in school” and this game's story implied just that, if you have a gun and kill people you are “cool” not only did this mislead Eric and change his personality but Eric then pressured Dylan, not only with developing dark fantasies but also Dylan's personality, the way he dressed up etc (page 154) All of this evidence can implies that teenagers are pressured by the new fictional violent games, they don't understand the true abuse the guns cause, and when they don't understand that they do shooting like Eric and Dylan did. Not only are video games pressuring teenagers and sometimes even adults, but sometimes once one person is pressured and manipulated they spread the same pressure to others around them we can see this from the way Eric manipulated and pressured Dylan to change his thinking.

On the other hand there are many that say that these new fictional violent video game approaches actually make the games more fun, and addictive and some articles even suggest that if fun fictional violent games keep on being sold it could keep gamers hooked on their consoles/computers and reduce the pressures to buy or use guns. Though this is true and these new fictional games are infact more entertaining and addictive what is it too stop one from doing it in real life, infact we did see the Columbine shooters who were “addicted” to games such as these come out and cause shootings. At the end we must understand that the video game industry is making millions of dollars from these new fictional games that promote owning a gun indirectly, and if more and more people start believing and learning from video games we might see an increased number of gun users, eventually causing more shootings, may it be by “accident” or on purpose the government should keep a watch on the video game industry. It is a powerful one.

The next big media industry that pressures people into getting guns is social media. Social media is a great thing, infact I am sure than many including me could not imagine their lives without social media! It is a great thing, in connects people from one end of a country all the way to the other, actually it can connect someone from one side of the world to the other side as well! Now that's quite fascinating but on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter there are many strangers. And one of the great powers of the social media platforms in our day and age is to change someone's identity and this is what many of the strangers on social media do, especially to the young teenagers out there. Often we are scrolling down the notifications area on our Twitter page or Instagram page and notice maybe a “trending now” post or something to that matter, and many times we see guns present in the photo, and captions on the photo such as “love this thing, had so much fun” but for many teenagers this may be misleading. As many know the teenage ages are when you are at your most curious, and coming across pictures like this can tempt or pressure you to own a gun, so you can feel the same experience they are feeling, but you don't know what type of person they are and this could be super powerful because these strangers who post photos of guns could drastically change your personality. Seeing others using guns could make you want to try using them as well, and well if you don't have proper supervision or use it at the wrong time there could be many problems caused. Nonetheless social media is a great place to promote your interests, I know that many of my friends and I post or tweet pictures of me doing things I love. And for some shooting with guns in a firing range may be their hobby, but when images like this surf the internet where there are millions of active kids, it could raise many eyebrows and instigate many to try using guns. Social media is also great for connecting with friends and many kids don't connect with anyone but their friends as their school teaches them which is great but for those that do go outside their friend circle they notice that social media has many trends that people act on, gun is one of the small but powerful trends in the social media world that could influence/pressure people to join in on. We see that when there is something new on social media (a trend) many start to follow it especially teenagers, an example of this is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it was a small trend that started but as it surfed social media more and more, kids kept on trying it. This could be the same case with guns, right now it just a small trend but if governments don't watch over social media this trend could catch onto many young teenagers and cause worldwide issues.

The last big form of media that pressures the public into owning guns is Movies and/or TV shows. Nearly everyone at some point in their life have watched a movie or a tv show with friends or families, and about 50% of the time movies or tv shows portray guns. Often the cool or the big men in the movies have guns.This can make many young viewers of the movie or tv show think a certain way, and many times it makes the public think that if you have a gun you are “cool”, though not one movie make this change in people, this change comes over time as you watch more movies spreading the same message (having guns makes you cool) Examples of such messages can be found in movies such as fast and furious, and tv shows such as arrow. However on the other hand sometimes movies do show that people who think they are cool with guns etc show the downfall of that person. Though that is true and is good that some movies are spreading the message that guns can sometimes lead to downfall we notice more that owning a gun is associated with your status and how “cool” you are. What the movie industry should do is make more movies and tv shows that are aimed at kids and show how sometimes having guns is bad and how much harm it can cause to the owners of the guns and people around them.

Though there are many that think the rising rate of gun violence is related to the growing population, and media is a innocent platform that does not have an impact on people's on people's perspective on guns but media is one of the biggest influences that force people to get guns. Everyday we see stories of young people using guns, killing innocents around us, people who are kids and can't defend themselves, people who are too scared to fight back. And about 70% the time these serial killers don't really meant to do it, it's not them acting out on their behalf, it's the repeated influence that these people get from media and we can see evidence of this from nearly every news site that reports on what influenced the murders to perform actions that they did. Now the media does not need to be stopped but it does need to be controlled, and this is critical, if you want your kids and their family to grow up in a safe environment where they are not given exposure to this, we need to start controlling the media. Because if we don't change the media now, it will be too late, there will be too many murders on the loose to stop, and nothing we can do, but that's the future of us doing the wrong thing, if we however work together and and make petitions to control media we can live in our dream world. As for video games, we must have a team of professionals that carefully evaluate the violent video games before the hit the markets and have millions playing them, we must ask violent video games to go back to their roots and once again show how harmful guns are through video games like they did back in the day. As for social media’s we must start to restrict pictures of guns or any hazardous items. For instance if there is a picture of a gun posted it should be striked and taken down, we should give each account 3 strikes and if they exceed the strike limit we shall permanently ban their account. This will encourage people to not post photos of guns that will influence others to get them because no one wants their account permanently banned. Lastly we need to change Hollywood, we must stop showing guns and power together, instead maybe show how guns give temporary power but in the long term we should show the harsh consequences, when doing this we should target the the younger audience, so that from an early age we can start to teach kids that these guns are bad if this done people will have that idea engraved in their heads. I strongly believe that if these actions are taken as soons as possible we can still have a sustainable, safe future. But what we should not do instead is ban media. Media is a great resource and we have come to the day and age where we kind of need it in our life, it provides entertainment, connects people and much more. If we can control media we can have a sustainable tomorrow.


Change starts with us, let's start now.

Huge Crowds At Race Course Road

It is safe to say that BAS hold the biggest Durga Puja event, but that causes huge crowd problems...On the night of 23rd of October was Durga Puja, an annual celebration performed by the Bengalis “to show respect to goddess Durga” said Vivekya Bose a spokesman from BAS (Bengali Association Singapore, they were the organisers of this festival event). However at 9:15pm local time, Singaporeans noticed crowds of Bengali lined outside the event. “People were pushed and shoved as crowds of devotees tried entering the event as other tried coming out at the same time” reported Ari Gosh a devotee who had come to pay his respects. These quee caused long lines of traffic jam along the Race Course Road, as taxis stood in line for both drop off and pick up. BAS has got the best reputation as they keep making their event better and every year

All of this disarray was “because devotees of goddess Durga were trying to pay their respects” says Santosh Aar. Many devotees spotted others leaving because of this disarray. Dillip Shoshto a 41 year old man who has come to this event for the past 6 years since it started as a small gathering, he said “It has never been this crowded before, I have stood here for 45 minutes and only gotten halfway through this line”. Later Mr Shoshto added “my family had to go home so as to get enough rest for school the next day” This meant that his family would not be able to experience Durga Puja this year and have to wait for next years. Many others like Mr Shoshto’s family were unable to attend this years event.

This raises questions about what we could expect from next years event. When asked Abhijit Ghosh about next year’s event he stated “we have got something special for the public next year thanks to your funding” Could this be hinting that BAS members and the public might be getting a bigger event next year compared to the average sized one that they have been getting over the past 6 years? Some rumors went around in the event of another association that could also be organising this event next year, so could this possibly be the competition that BAS has been lacking? Returning to the event however, devotees that were able to see the event said it was beautiful and the best one they had seen from BAS.

Teenagers Using Video Games As A Way To Escape Stress

Darkness eats through the room, as images flash from a television/monitor onto a teenagers glasses. His eyebrows draw closer and his hands grip the controller tighter. Furiously his fingers moved through the controller, moving joysticks, and pressing buttons. The room reeks of unwashed clothes and expired food. Shelves above his monitor are lined with energy drinks, the clock reads 3:57AM and he is still awake. On his left math worksheets and half finished english assignments lie on the desk.

This is the life of nearly 84% of teenagers in UWCSEA.

The regular middle schooler or freshman from UWCSEA spends about 8-10 hours on average playing video over the weekends. But did you know that 87.4% of gamers here at UWCSEA say that they use video games the escape the stress in life.

“However this is not the best/most principled decision” says mentor Chris Ihara currently teaching at UWC. “When escaping reality they have no idea how much time has passed since they turned on their game console or computer” says national counceller James Ostein. After their gaming session is finished and they tune back into “reality” and notice how little time they have before the next test/assignment is due. So it becomes clear that video game causes more stress for teenagers. And so video games, even though scientifically proven as a way to release stress, only release stress in the short term and has consequential and powerful long term effects -including dropping grades, friendship problems health etc. This stress is being caused by constant demands of teachers to turn in assignments and test, and confused kids using video games as a way to escape this reality is giving giving students worse and worse grades and other issues like health problems.

According to stress expert Doctor Kathleen Hall the CEO of The Stress Institute “Not only does video games impact our studies and cause higher stress levels, but it also impacts our health, for example lack of sleep, radiation on the going through the eye and into the brain as well as other harmful effects”. This suggests that not only are teenagers gaining higher levels of stress after gaming, but it's also impacting kids health. Radiation from the TV can often cause migraines, after an intense gaming session for a long time and sometimes also short periods. This evidence is significant because it reveals that teenager’s health is also being impacted, and there is no way to limit this, there are more than one harmful side effects from playing video games. This makes it clear that kids suffer these problems from video and this could also permanently damaged nerves in the brain suggests Discovery Science.

Returning to previously mentioned statement from James Ostein “When escaping reality they have no idea how much time has passed since they turned on their game console or computer”. Similar to health problems some readers might not realize is that not only does this issue cause more stress/health problems (such as migraines, stress on the eye etc) but depending on when the session ends it can cause harm to the sleep patterns of teenagers which would eventually lead to impact teenager’s health. Teenager Aayush Dutta from Grade 8 shares an experience, “It was the end of the week, typical Friday night I stayed in my bedroom playing videogames with some friends, and tried to release all the stress I had for the next week, from tests, and due assignments, as I played I lost track of time and pulled of an all nighters playing video games without knowing, I only went back into reality when a ray of sunshine crept into my room through the crack of my curtains”. When asked about the side effects he stated “the whole of next week I was drowsy, really tired, couldn’t focus on studies but I got through it fortunately, but I found myself doing the same the next weekend as well” This makes it clear that kids lose track of time while playing video games to release stress, and that disrupts their sleep patterns.

“This is worrisome” is what James Ostein said about this issue. Research suggests that teenagers should get anywhere between eight and a half to nine hours of sleep each night. However kids like Aayush are getting no where near that and it also spoils their sleep pattern, making them sleep during the day and stay up all night. Lack of sleep results in sloppiness with work, memory loss, speed of your brain, aging your skin, risk of death from cardiovascular disease (some deaths have happened due to getting this disease after consecutive hours of gaming) obesity, high blood pressure and other serious health problems, including heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, and diabetes.

This evidence is revealing that hours of gaming done by many students (2 out of 5 boys in grade 8) can lead to unhealthy sleep patterns and deprivation, which eventually leads too many health issues and academic issues.

All in all many kids in this day and age are using video games as a method to escape reality, to not feel stressed. But this is wrong, and can have many consequences for them in the future for example, lower grades, health problems, and depression from not talking to anyone and just playing video games, and this should not be a lightly treated issue.

However this does not have carry on, teenagers don't have to rely on video games to release stress. Many teenagers have learnt this the hard way after growing up to become adults, they now try to pass the same message they would have loved to have. “Find ways to manage your stress, set yourself goals, work to them and then get a reward but don't use it in the wrong way” says adult now Viresh. The reward might be video games, but the time limit needs to be there. Many kids are achieving this by moving their video game consoles out of their room and into the living room. Resulting in less time spent playing these games, because than their parents will be able to tell them when to stop unlike their room which only consists of just him/her. But if that's a problem you can always set time duration on your console to let it only power on for a certain amount of time.

Returning to the stress issue that makes many of the gamers play video games on the first hand you can try to manage your stress by, controlling what you can, find out where the stress is coming from and if you can change it for example if you have an assignment due, use applications like concentrate to block you from getting distracted for hours which will give you less time to complete the assignment and add more stress, and finish the work in the allotted time you have given yourself and than do whatever you want.

Another important strategy that is used by many students is visiting a local councellor, it doesn't have to be at some fancy place, there are counselors available in most schools, so tell them to make use of the opportunity, teenagers can talk to them about their stress, what they do to escape it (playing video games in this article) and get feedback on better ways to manage their stress from the experts!