Video, motion photography, is likely the most sensually engaging form of entertainment, media, and communication. It is more distinct, vivid, and physically visual than the written word. For that reason, videos and short films have become significantly more used and useful within the classrooms of grade schools as well as higher education curriculums. In our modern world, video productions also serve as a popular medium for instructional presentations, news, ads, etc.
Due to the fact that one who fully experiences video uses the combination of multiple senses (and therefore multiple areas of the brain) to fully take in the visual and audible data, the person watching a video or film is more engaged than if he was simply reading a book which only involves the sense of sight.
Movies are influential in so many ways no matter their length. They depict and can even establish new trends in pop culture and fashion, but they also represent characters with personalities, attitudes, and beliefs. And thus, such characteristics found in fictional roles (which might not be in line with common morals or even courtesies) can quite likely “rub off” on certain members of a movie’s audience.
For example, if the main character who’s considered to be a benevolent figure or hero begins a rampage of needless killing than some people might actually start to believe that handling one’s problems in such a manner is entirely acceptable. Someone with anger management issues might say to himself something to the effect of “Well, guys like Batman and Dead Pool do it so I guess I can too.” It most likely would not be an immediate reaction, but over time the ideas would become more and more common and acceptable in someone’s mind. The fictional screenplay and reality might be seen as one and the same.
When you enter the movie theater you have already opened your mind to whatever content is in the feature you are planning to watch. Of course, the majority of adult-minded audience moviegoers may be able to watch graphic features in which moralities are put to the test. But more and more frequently, the youth of today want to “be like grown-ups.” They want sex, smokes, boozes, and every other pleasure under the sun including every kind of inappropriate film. I see teens as well as practical toddlers in theaters exposed to some pretty grotesque “entertainment.”
As we all know, human beings really never stop learning. But kids, teens, and even young adults, who are still in the process of differentiating between right and wrong and orientating themselves in the world around them, are more impressionable, ignorant, and pliable. They are still growing physically and mentally. They are not as set in their ways as the older generations.
It all sounds sort of gloomy, but it doesn’t have to be! Much of the entertainment of years past was written and produced with the idea in mind that the plot would endeavor to teach the audience a lesson in the practice of morality. It’s not that difficult a thing to accomplish. It can be executed rather subtlely. For example, it could be as simple and small a thing as the main character holding the door for the elderly person walking into the same cafe that he is. Or it could be extremely dramatic like a superhero saving someone’s life during an alien invasion.
If mainstream entertainment studios and stations were to promote better ethics in their video content, those misguided individuals inclined towards violence as well as the public at large would think and perhaps even act far differently than the way they currently do.
Photo: Pixabay