Life, Liberty and Violence

I researched the reason for the emotional desensitization to violence in Americans. I found that it’s due to a combination of how media portrays violence, through news and movies, and violence is a big part of America’s history. Specifically, news stories depict massacres just as numbers sometimes which makes people extremely emotionally disconnected. Also, movies sometimes do not accurately portray acts of violence which leads people to assumptions and generalizations. 

My opinion on my topic started to shift as I did more research. When I first started, my opinion was strictly “Americans are desensitized because of media” but I found that it actually goes much deeper than just media. It’s really because Americans are scared so becoming more emotionally numb is an unconscious coping strategy rather than a set decision that people make. My topic is extremely urgent to today’s society because mass shootings are becoming increasingly common and not everyone thinks about the psychological effect it can have on the public. Of course, the deaths of the victims are the first thing everyone should think about but the psychological effect on the public should be taken in account too. After talking to Elisabeth Conradt from the University of Utah, I could extend my topic on to how violence specifically affects children as to just the general public. I would be very interested in extending my topic in this direction because the children of America are the future and are one of the most important parts of our society. 

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