TV violence

Another study is out claiming a link between violence on TV and aggressive behavior. I’d really like to read the original, because what I’m seeing in the article is not terribly convincing.

As one person commenting on the study points out, assuming there really is a connection in the numbers portrayed, it’s at least as plausible that families which produce violent children also let their kids watch TV a lot.

I guess I resist this stuff on two levels, possibly interrelated. First, aside from the Forbidden Fruit of the Three Stooges, my parents did not place many particular restrictions on my TV viewing. From unexpurgated Road Runner cartoons to regular shoot-em-ups and beat-em-ups on Mannix and The FBI, I watched it all. And, aside from the occasional impulse to have the US bomb the snot out of somebody, I don’t consider myself a violent person. So my own, personal, anecdotal evidence seems to deny the conclusion that is drawn.

And that leads into the second point. What tends to happen with studies like this is aesthetically abhorrent and usually not even in keeping with the conclusions. Various folks get their knickers in a twist about violence on TV, and the next thing you know, you get bowdlerized Bugs Bunny cartoons and abortions like The A-Team (where it’s okay to shoot as much as you want, but heaven forfend anyone actually get hit by a stray round).

Indeed, sometimes this very impulse is fed into by misleading questions in the studies. What does this study consider to be an act of aggression, or violence, either on TV or in personal life? Does that pass the reasonability test, before we start pulling out the metaphorical torches and pitchforks to burn down the castle of Evil Dr. Hollywood?

Look at the comment of the gent dissenting in this article. “”Some studies have shown that about 75 per cent of kids’ TV viewing is done without the company of parents, which is tragic.” That, folks, is a much more significant problem, both in terms of the lessons that kids might take away from TV, in terms of what they might be watching, and in terms of what else it might say about how the kids are being raised.

(By the way, this is one of the areas where Margie and I differ. She’s much more sensitive to violence on TV. But we both agree that supervised TV watching is important, which, to my mind, is the more critical thing here.)

(Via Doyce)