Media has a strong influence over individuals. People’s attitudes and behaviors are changing by every passing day. They intend to use the media that improves their mood. The media selection is up to them. Their selection will change their negative mood to positive. Mood management is dependent on the mental and physical health of the population. It applies differently to every individual either young or adult. Disorders like depression are troublesome. Depression has a significant impact on the individual’s behavior and also results in extended sad feelings .
Different age groups have a diversified impact on mood due to the media they use. The media use patterns among these groups differ from each other. For example, adolescents and teenagers who age between eight and 18 years are not completely emotionally developed. Their media use pattern to enhance mood is different from adults’ pattern. Adolescents and teenagers spend almost eight hours using different forms of media though the pattern may not be consistent. The media they consume is in the form of televisions, the internet, music, and video games. Due to biological and social changes, adolescents change their behaviors accordingly. Their extreme media usage leads them to reform and change their perception and judgment abilities. Adolescents have the capability to choose activities they find suitable. These chosen activities can bring positive or negative experiences in their life (Carpentie, Brown and Bertocci 147).
All of the media users do not have an equal impact of media. For example, individuals who are suffering from clinical depression may not use any form of media to enhance their mood and come out of darkness. The adolescents’ social experiences may bring a change in media violence aggression relationship. The social environment is a major source that changes the individuals’ positive attitude to negative. The more adolescents face the fierce media content and peer victimization; they are likely to show intense belligerent behavior. In the case, there is no peer victimization; violent media content can still be the cause of adolescents’ aggressive behavior. The peer norms act as a mediating variable in between media violence and aggression.
Peers are the major source of influence during the phase of adolescence. The phase in which peers have more influence than parents’ influence. The media violence has increased the peer aggression. For example, the adolescents who experience intense peer aggression, media violence finds easy to integrate among individuals that further results in more aggressive adolescent behavior. The more the violent media exposure, the easier it is to access the aggressive related data in memory. The intense exposure results in higher aggressive behavior in the social environment .
The electronic devices and the machines used today have become our best friend. These devices have eliminated the human labor to almost zero. Internet and smartphones have bridged a huge gap between virtual and physical world. The purpose of the internet is to improve the level of productivity that our ancestors could not enjoy. The different types of media have made the lives easier, but on the other hand, aggressive behavior of adults and adolescents is rising. For example, Counter Strike game has created cognitive scripts. The cognitive scripts emphasize on aggressive responses. The higher the individuals are engaged in such violent games, their aggression is energized which make the individual think that others are hostile towards them. In real life, these vicious games are acting as a source to create cognitive scripts of aggression.
Works Cited
Carpentie, Francesca R. Dillman, et al. "Sad Kids, Sad Media? Applying Mood Management." Media Psychology 11.1 (2008): 143-166.
Fikkers, Karin M., Jessica Taylor Piotrowsk and Peter & Valkenburg, Patti M. Lugtig. "The Role of Perceived Peer Norms in the Relationship Between Media Violence Exposure and Adolescents' Aggression." Media Pychology 19.1 (2016): 4-26.
Valkenburg, Patti M. & Peter,Jochen. "The Differential Susceptibility to Media Effect Model." Journal of Communication 63.1 (2013): 221-243.
