> I've not much to say about this subject, except that TV will neither make nor break your life. I don't understand how people can think of television as something that controls them, and I've never bought into the idea of "I had no say in the matter - television made me what I am." Extend that argument a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) and you get to people who say that playing Doom makes kids go on gun rampages. Honestly, now. I agree with Sam, in that television does provide something to do to the exclusion of other things one could do - that's more or less a tautology. But I don't believe that telvision turns kids into reclusive, antisocial underachievers - people are responsible for their own behaviour. No blaming the television for how you did or didn't turn out.

Darien, I agree with you for the most part. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest that "television made me do it," or "the internet made me do it." I read about some guy who was on trial for murder and his defense was that he was "intoxicated by the internet." Ridiculous. If it was true that playing violent video games caused kids to go on killing sprees, then I should have gone on one long ago; I used to play Doom, Mortal Kombat, Quake, etc. with the best of them.

However....
What all this violence *can do* (not that it always necessarily does) is de-sensitize us to to it. A five year old child IS going to be affected by watching violence on television and by playing games in which they run around with a trigger finger blowing away anything that moves. You are right that those things can't be pointed to as the ONE and only cause for someone's becoming a violent adult, but I believe they are one factor among many. In the end, though, each person is responsible for their own actions.

Gri"hmm..that was worth about 2 cents,wasn't it?"shny