The entertainment industry is one of the most popular and influential things that we as human beings consume. One of the more popular themes that we are exposed to within this industry is violence, but there is a troubling aspect to this as well. The thing that concerns many folks out there, including me is the connection between violence in the entertainment industry and violence in real life. Acts of violence like mass shootings have been popping up quite frequently over the past couple of years, and it feels like the entertainment industry plays a role in this.

One of the biggest reasons for this is because the media tends to overdramatize the scenes that include violence in order to enhance the plot of the product they produce. There are many ways they do this from massive explosions, to big fight scenes, to using top of the line weapons among other things. While it often leads to a successful product, it can also show a susceptible audience (children) that violence is cool and shows that it is acceptable for anyone to solve their problems with violence.

There is another aspect that should be considered in this struggle as well and it is something that is difficult to talk about: mental health. While nobody has ever proven that there is a direct correlation between this, violence in the media and violence in real life it makes me wonder if we devoted more resources into this if events such as the Stoneham Douglas High School shooting and many others could have been possibly prevented if we had done this.

Now that the problem has been discussed, what are the ways that we can combat this problem to possibly prevent it from happening in the future. There are the old tried and true ways of doing this by controlling what are kids have access to, but kids will just find a way around that. There could be more resources devoted to mental health, but it is not on the top of the decision makers to do list. The discussions will continue to happen, and we need to figure out a solution now. Hopefully, the media will be a part of the solution instead of continuing to be a part of the problem.