How de-sensitized will the youth of the future be?

[MetalMantheRevenge]

It's all happened before, you see an R-rated slasher flick and think Yawn-a-rama.
Or see someone's head explode in an M-rated game and barely bat an eye.

Remember when Mortal Kombat(the first one) was a big deal. Look back on it now comapare to today's video games. Quite a difference, eh? This is because most people have been desensitized to violence.

So my question to you is, How desensitized to violence will the future youth be>

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Considering i'm pretty desensitized now, i think very.
It's good in a way, especially if you join the army and can deal with the horrors of war, but in another way it's bad, because you don't see things for the horrors they are.

But to sum it up- Very.

 

[roryyeung]

That depends. Although they are likely to have watched more violence, most are likely to have been actually exposed (in person) to less violence and disease (decreasing violent crime seems to be a fairly consistent trend, at least according to the home office stats). Combine that with a good 50+years since the last conscription based war, and they could actually be less desensitised.

 

[Vault101]

hmmm I dont know...I mean it also depends on the induvidual

and Im not about to go screaming "ohhh the youth are doomed!" anytime soon

 

[Griffolion]

hmmm I dont know...I mean it also depends on the induvidual

and Im not about to go screaming "ohhh the youth are doomed!" anytime soon

People have been doing that for years, ney, millenia:

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.

They're no more doomed than we were, society moves on as does humanity.

 

[AceTrilby]

I don't know that anyone can be completely desensitised without being a robot. Gore in movies and games makes me yell 'Fuck yeah!', but I despise real violence. For instance, the riots in London scare the shit out of me - and I live in Scotland. I saw that video of the injured teenager getting robbed and it made me sick (not literally, but y'know). I also don't know that I could bring myself to kill another human being.

What surprised me is that my grandmother is far more imaginitive when it comes to violence than I am. That little piece of information threw me right off balance when it comes to this debate...

 

[Loner Jo Jo]

I don't think so at all, and I don't think this generation is more desensitized than any other generation, really. For hundreds of years, people watched hangings and beheadings for shits and giggles. We watch fake blood splatter across our TV sets. Even though most of my friends love horror films and the guys play FPSes and other violent games, if they were to actually witness a violent death, they would piss themselves, and I think most people who are desensitized to cartoon or fake violence would too. Really, we might be less desensitized than previous generations, and this trend probably won't change... unless the apocalypse happens and death becomes an every day occurrence.

 

[Tonythion]

actually looking at it, youth today are pretty sheltered.

I mean I remember the cartoons from my day they were pretty violent and they actually said bad words and such.

I was watching Ren and Stimpy and no lie Ren called Stimpy an ass. He slapped him around and stuff. I sat down to watch some cartoons with my nieces and their favorite tv shows are sooo boring and they can't even say the word stupid.

Plus it depends on the person I played a lot of violent video games when I was younger and I wasn't shocked and I can watch people being thrown into wood chippers and laugh. My friends little brother who loves violent video games can't stand the sight of blood--real or fake--he is like 13 years old

 

[Rawne1980]

Depends on the area they live in aswell.

It's pretty rough in this town, quite a bit of violence so it's a common sight.

Some parents shelter kids and wrap them in cotton wool (not literally or they would suffocate) thus harming that child when it's grown up and has to see the big bad world for itself.

The more people try and "protect" a child the more harm they are actually doing.

When I was a lad (now I feel old) if we talked back to teachers we had big wooden chalk board wipers thrown at us or clouts round the head. Parents and granparents often hit us with belts (buckle end first) if we fucked up and we learnt pretty damn fast not to act like tossers.

Now you walk down the streets and in supermarkets to kids shouting and screaming and parents doing sod all about it.

I don;t think they will be de-sensitised, I think the kids of the future are going to be arseholes.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

i thought i was desensitized to violence... i laught at the gore in horror movies and stuff.

But i dont think that anymore. I just recently saw a chicken getting killed by some african friends(they really shouldnt be killing chickens in the backyard but they didnt know) and they had some trouble because the knife was blunt....

My hands were shaking and i couldnt go near the thing. Its sad the couldnt put it down mercifully but it was just a bloody chicken, if i was really desensitised it wouldnt have upset me so much.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Desinsitized to violence and death in media does not mean the same applies in real life. I speak from experience here.

 

[razer17]

Well they might be desensitised to media violence like in games and films, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you don't react to simulated violence, because it's not real.

I have been playing GTA since I was about 11, but if I saw something like a real murder, I would be pretty shook up about it.