Thread: You Are What You ... Read?

Ok, so how do you know that sexual predators don’t read porn because they already have that inclination? Same thing with violent people? I’m sure a lot of people have very suggestion open minds, but will my life suddenly become content if I watch a good natured movie? Is the secret to happiness simply watching happy movies? They can have an impact on you, but I think that the effect fades.

If you watch those movies when you already are violent etc, then I agree. But you don't get "converted" to a certain specification by watching these movies.
So averagly the movies you watch represent what you are like in this first case.
Otherwise they are just showing what kind of an temporary interest you might have been in, when watching the movie.
I know a lot of people that watch all sorts of movies; no generalization could be found.
But now .. I also know a lot of people that love watching Horror movies. What does that mean then Keeper? I don't see them being all violent, or love to be frightened.

I watch violent movies, I don't feel like a "violent maniac", if you get my point. I guess what you say works if you don't have much controll over your actions?

I think it's more true to TV shows than reading, because kids are more likely to become influenced by TV and I think most kids don’t read much at all (except the ones that do read probably read more than adults). Plus in TV shows not only is your mind seeing the actions preformed your also more than likely hearing it. I think in reading most people don’t have a very vivid imagination when it comes to reading so what they read might have no effect them as much. But I do think that TV has a lot of effect on people’s reactions.

Seeing something on TV would be a type of learning, I think the correct term is social conditioning? Well not sure but there was this psychologist who did an experiment on young children and TV violence. One group of kids watched a video at an adult beating up a doll and then… nothing happened. Another video for antoher group had an ending where the adult was yelled at by another adult and the other ending the adult beating up the doll was rained with candy or something like that. And later when the kids were sent to play the kids would mimic the actions of the adult beating up the doll. I forgot what the results were for each group but the kids all learned the action, even if they haven’t preformed it.

So that’s kind of like if older teens were watching a horror movie of course they’re not going to perform the actions (I hope) but they would have ‘learned’ it. And the being brainwashed by TV thing goes well with being brainwashed by other people. My sibling frequently repeats the same opinions of my dad on subjects she knows nothing about, uses the same wording too! It really bugs me…

There’s this big thing on what effect personality, the usual environment or heredity thing. I forgot the name but there was this one psychologist that claimed how people are or act is all based on environment and that people are born like a ‘blank slate’ and everything you see of hear makes it’s mark on the slate. Kind of scary when little kids are growing up watching MTV.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("keeper")</div>

Most "sexual preditors" read pornography and violent people generaly watch violent movies.[/b]

On that note..

net porn reduces rape.

Does pornography breed rape? Do violent movies breed violent crime? Quite the opposite, it seems.

First, porn. What happens when more people view more of it? The rise of the Internet offers a gigantic natural experiment. Better yet, because Internet usage caught on at different times in different states, it offers 50 natural experiments.

The bottom line on these experiments is, "More Net access, less rape." A 10 percent increase in Net access yields about a 7.3 percent decrease in reported rapes. States that adopted the Internet quickly saw the biggest declines.[/b]

It does seem kind of sensible, as prostitution is known to decrease rape. Extending that notion to pornography is not much of a leap.

Porn and violent movies give people a release for perfectly natural instinctual behaviour. we&#39;ve had to be violent and have crazy sex drives for millions of years, it&#39;s nice that nowadays we have non-harmful ways to release these emotions.

Of course they&#39;ll never completely eliminate rape/violence cause, you know, some people are just fucked up. But they do help.

&#39;Acting out&#39; your inner desires can be a great stress reliever. So yes, it doesn&#39;t surprise me that internet porn overall reduces rape.

That said, I think most people definitely are more or less affected by what they see, especially children, and most certain those without proper adult supervision. TV is a dangerous thing. Just watch MTV, and you&#39;ll see how the tales of Sodom and Gomorrah fits all to nicely in this modern, individualistic consumer society.

Wow you accomplish to be even more stupid.

Just on the &#39;porn&#39; thing. At least 50% (most likely more) of the western male population watches porn frequently or has.

Besides that, books just shape your idea&#39;s, they do not form them completely. Some people have a voilent nature. Voilent computer games only have the slightest effect. I play alot of violent computer games, and I am quite sure I havn&#39;t turned the slightest bit more violent.

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On what did you support your claim anyway? Do you have any proof?

Originally Posted by Neruo

Wow you accomplish to be even more stupid.

Just on the &#39;porn&#39; thing. At least 50% (most likely more) of the western male population watches porn frequently or has.

Besides that, books just shape your idea&#39;s, they do not form them completely. Some people have a voilent nature. Voilent computer games only have the slightest effect. I play alot of violent computer games, and I am quite sure I havn&#39;t turned the slightest bit more violent.

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On what did you support your claim anyway? Do you have any proof?
[/b]

Did you address me? I said pretty clearly I was for pornography, but one should be cautious when it comes to exposing children for that kind of material, including violence/horror. I never said anything about books.

I had a &#39;friend&#39; in 7th grade; we used to skip gym class and play Grand Theft Auto. He got totally into it and ended up stealing a car(&#33. Afterwards he told me it was &#39;so cool&#39; because he did it &#39;just like in the game&#39;. Now, of course, this kid was totally nuts and does not represent the average person, but people handle things differently, and kids are more prone to be affected by external impulses such as games and television, as I said, without proper adult supervision. My girlfriend, for example, watched a lot of horror movies when she was a kid. No doubt it did something to her, she is still terrifyingly afraid of monsters, and the dark.

Also, I didn&#39;t say anything about books. I get goosebumps if I read a good ghost story, and as a kid I read these &#39;true tales&#39;-books which made me terrified, so I had to quit. I doubt if you would get crazy or something though, at least not violent.

If you could just be more specific as to what was so stupid about my post, I would be happy to give a more concise reply

you know... i like to blow up people in violent games...

i can&#39;t say i don&#39;t enjoy pornography...


but that doesn&#39;t say i&#39;m a serial murderer who rapes people...

in fact, i find it safe for me to say that i&#39;m not violent at all...

but you probably won&#39;t believe that...

i liked to watch pokemon, but that didn&#39;t want me to cram my dog inside a 2 inch diameter ball and have him fight against bunnies...

you get my point...


and sure, SOME people will be like that:

they WILL be affected by this all, but i think it&#39;s safe to say the majority of us doesn&#39;t...

say for yourself:
think about how many people watch porn on the internet...
if that were the people who became sexual predators, then the whole world has to be raped by now...

ok, i exagerated, but you get my point, no?

I am Dirk Pitt

bull shit.

choice disproves everything you just said.

if someone chooses to be violent... it&#39;s their choice... not the choice of the writer/director/producer of a movie/song/game. maybe someone is INFLUENCED by something they see or hear... but what they experience does not MAKE them do anything. they choose to act that way... it&#39;s not just some domino effect.

If I am illiterate, what am I? JK

If you don&#39;t think this has SOME merit, look at the Bible. Look at self help books.
<Look at lucid dreaming books>

But a lot of this boils down to what one is looking for. If you need religion you will be more likely to accept it.
Different from your peers brain washing you (without choice I. E. religion) - you most often do have a choice to what you read. What you read reflects what you usually want. In return, you accept what the illustrator has put forth.

For some reason when thoughts are put into text, people often consider it to be validated and true. When actually it can be as unvalidated as anything.
I see this in local papers all the time. Their information is often put into context as truth. When only to find out later that it was rhetoric.

Originally Posted by arh

Did you address me?[/b]

No&#33; I addressed the topic starter: Keeper. Sorry for the confusion, I should have quoted.


To made a general statement: Porn is the only thing preventing me from raping every mammal I see ; ) In a way... it is a metafpore

my movie genre be thriller, and i read mostly fantasy, i dont get how it works, i see the violent thing, but not this?