I am so tired of hearing stories in which people do something dangerous or illegal because they saw it on TV or in a game. If you're going to copy something from TV, why not replicate what you saw on a make-up advert or Gok's Fashion Fix. That way, you look better and you're easier on the eyes. Everybody wins!
Hip hop music has been blamed for encouraging shooting for years. If songs are that influential, surely this world would be a lot happier since the majority of songs are about love. Or these days, about clubbing. For all the billions that can listen and watch without turning into psychopaths, the few that do are used as representatives in clearly over generalised articles. It's like when the daily mail does one article on a Muslim man illegally claiming benefits, and suddenly the taxpayer is funding terrorism. Then they ask opinions to report that 66% of Britons who were asked agreed with deportation as a punishment. Never mind the fact that the sample size was 3 people, probably including Nick Griffin and Tommy Robinson.
I was having a conversation about a violent TV show with my friend Daina on whatsapp. We were discussing Sons of Anarchy and the convo went like this:
Me: I can't stand juice, I hope he dies.
D: OMG me too! And I'm so glad X was killed, I hated her.
Me: I hope Y gets her comeuppance too, at the hands of Jax preferably.
D: That bish deserves to die!
I actually pointed out how worrying our conversation would be to an outsider reading it. Despite this violent mentality, it is very much within the context of a fictional TV show. In reality, I end up apologising profusely to people who bump into me or step on the back of my shoe.
I remember sitting with my twin as he played Grand Theft Auto. We were rarely interested in following the missions, instead choosing to rob and kill as many people as possible. He would often steal a car and rank up his fugitive level until the police, SWAT teams and FBI were all chasing him down. Then he would jump out of the car and proceed to shoot as many of them as possible.
In reality, he is a doctor and spends every day trying to save lives.
So how can these shows, songs or games be responsible for criminal acts when so many people are able to distinguish between reality and fiction.
I think people know the truth but love this blame culture. As I grow older, I realise that fewer and fewer people take responsibility for their actions. The kind of person who would commit these kinds of acts, would probably do so even if TVs and music players didn't exist. They clearly choose to ignore all the positive things that are on TV and are just as easy to copy.
Last week (in another metro article) a woman complained about the cap on her benefits saying that she couldn't afford healthy food so had become obese living off take away. She even suggested that she should get bonuses for weight loss - an extra £1 for every lb she lost.
1) I work full time and can't afford to buy enough take away to become obese.
2) Maybe if she had to get up to go to work, she might get some much needed exercise to counteract the bad food she's consuming.
3) Maybe if her benefits were capped further, she wouldn't be able to afford to purchase all that takeaway and would inevitably lose weight.
It reminded me of when I was on my weight loss plan and I would visit relevant forums for support. I can't tell you the countless times I saw people write 'I lost 5lbs this week, I'm going to celebrate tonight with a Chinese takeaway'. Then the next week they would have gained weight or lost nothing and then decided to eat whatever they wanted since dieting doesn't work anyway.
(Please note there is no scientific evidence to support this claim).
It only takes one piece of fruit to make the whole bunch go bad. Work out which bad seed is infecting your core and cut that mofo out. Breaking bad habits can start today.