Mass media is a great instrument for shaping public opinion, and it has a significant influence on people’s minds. The Internet impacts not only adults but children and their psychological development as well. They watch various movies, cartoons, and memes, read different books, and the content they consume is not always good for their psyche since many media sources contain information that fosters the development of aggressive behavior. That is why psychologists are preoccupied with the possibility of the fact that the Internet may cause growing juvenile delinquency.
First of all, children’s and adolescents’ psyche is quite unstable, and the games or videos that contain violence-related content may significantly harm it or form a superstition that such behavior is normal. Apart from that, the Internet gives access to images of violence that happened in real life, and many adolescents whose psyche is yet unstable may copycat those crimes (Gansner, 2017). The psychologists also say that the teenagers who use the Internet uncontrollably are more likely to face depression, anxiety, or other mental disorders that may later result in aggressive behavior. In addition, problematic Internet use may be referred to as an impulse control disorder (Gansner, 2017). In other words, teenagers who have problems with impulsivity and aggressiveness are likely to consume violence-related content on the Internet and even transfer such behavioral patterns into real-life situations.
To conclude, the Internet and media may be called not the reason for the increased juvenile delinquency but the means supporting aggressive inclinations in teenagers with mental disorders. Hence, it is necessary to work with the aggressive behavior in teens, in general, and study its psychological reasons. Moreover, it will be quite useful to study the ways adolescents use social media to show their aggression in order to find ways to solve the problem.
Reference
Gansner, M. E. (2017). “The Internet made me do it” – social media and potential for violence in adolescents. Psychiatric Times, 34(9). Web.