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While the spread of violent content through the media and other electronic sources is definitely a large problem, the arguably bigger situation at hand is what happens after that content has had its influence on people. The consequences of viewing material that is violent can be exponentially large, but they can also be very miniscule in the grand scheme of things. A study done by Irwin and Gross had results that supported the latter situation. They found that boys that had played a video game that had heavy violent content “were more physically aggressive toward peers” than other boys who hadn’t played the game. (Huesmann) A different survey done involved over 700 public school students to see their perspective of violence in the school setting. The results found that “one in four students reported having ever been a victim of violence at or around school,” and that “one in ten boys and almost 20% of those who earned poor grades reported threatening a teacher” (Students’). Young kids and teens are definitely not the only age groups to show violent tendencies in the real world. The competitive aura that permeates a sporting arena has grown and grown over the years. This shift has become so massive that while at a college football game, someone’s mother was yelling “‘Kill him! Kill him!’” at the opposing team’s fullback. (Glass) Her husband then whispered to her “‘Pauline, that’s someone’s son” (Glass). These reported situations ultimately don’t really mean all that much in the long run, at least not compared to other events that have happened in the world. These events include the unfortunate growth in school shootings around the world. Many such shootings have occurred in the United States, but others have been reported that happened overseas; one such shooting happened in Russia in 2004. Over thirty terrorists invaded the Middle School Number One in Beslan and held the teachers and children in there hostage. While armed forces did arrive and eventually defeat the terrorists, “by the time the fighting had ended, 344 civilians were dead, at least 172 of them children” (Ponomarev). The world as we know it now has become one built around violence, thanks in no small part to the small boxes and rectangles we constantly have around us. There isn’t any way to truly escape violence in this world; we can only try and “fight” against it.

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Ray Bradbury makes many claims throughout Fahrenheit 451 about how violence in society is affected by the media and through screens; these claims can easily be applied to our society today. The current world of the 21st century has a lot of violent content floating around through the news, on the Internet, and through video games. The large quantity of this type of content has led to numerous studies and reports on whether or not it actually has an effect on people. These studies have found that it does indeed have an effect. It was found that 97% of teens play video games, most of which play daily for an hour or more (American). Considering the fact that many video games like “Call of Duty” and “Doom” have massive amounts of graphic content, the level of exposure teens are receiving indicates that it may have a psychological effect on their behavior. Psychologist Chris Anderson confirms this idea, but also contributes it to “other variables such as mental health and family life” (American). Also, by analyzing 24 different studies done around the world, researchers found that these types of games do lead to actions like hitting someone in school and getting sent to the office for it (USA). Data from another survey done by Barna says that “more than one-quarter (27%)” of the people that responded to the survey “believe violence in video games motivates violence in real life” (Does) Video games aren’t the only source of this issue, however; TV and movies also seem to contribute to an increase in violent behaviors. CNN reporter Sasha Emmons said that the day after she watched Star Wars with her children, her 3-year-old son Julian “turned everything (Tinker Toys, tennis rackets, you name it) into a pretend gun and started running around the house like a pint-size Han Solo taking down Storm Troopers” (Emmons). She went on to detail that “90% of movies and 60% of TV show some depiction of violence” (Emmons). While there have been many other studies that support the claim that violence in the world is affected by the media and other electronic sources, some other studies have proved the opposite. A study at the University of Oxford that involved over 2,000 teens, adults, and carers managed to prove that there is no correlation between video games and violence in society. Professor Andrew Przybylski commented after the results of the study became public, saying “despite interest in the topic by parents and policy-makers, the research has not demonstrated that there is cause for concern” (Barder). He also said that behaviors like trash talking online did warrant further study (Barder). Although studies do conflict on whether video games have an effect on violence in society or not, it isn’t arguable that violence today isn’t influenced by outside sources.

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Throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451, it is made apparent that what is shown on people’s walls inside their homes affects their behavior outside of their homes. For example, when Montag is running from the government and to Faber’s house, he is nearly run over by a vehicle traveling at an insane speed. After recovering, Montag remarks “They would have killed me...For no reason at all in the world they would have killed me” (Bradbury 122). The tone of voice used demonstrates how shocked and frightened Montag is while also acting as a parallel to how most people react to experiences like that in the real world. This situation also could be seen as a parallel to the jet car bash that was seen on Montag’s walls during an earlier part of the novel. By including this moment, Bradbury directly shows how what people see on TV or any media can affect their behavior. This isn't the only occasion of this happening too. When Montag meets a group of men who had done many various intellectual studies before the society became very technological, he decides to join up and travel with them. However, as they travel along the river banks, the city that Montag came from gets bombed by the jet bombers. As Montag watched in horror, “he knew the scream of the jets that would follow...disintegrate, leave no stone on another, perish. Die” (Bradbury 151). This moment was foreshadowed throughout the novel with the jet bombers constantly flying overhead and news reports of war being declared over the radio. By having the word of war be spread through media and screens, Bradbury creates a society that is constantly surrounded by violence, one that can’t break free from its iron grip, and one that has become the world we live in today.

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In Fahrenheit 451, everyone gets their entertainment and news through televisions built into the walls of their homes. That entertainment and news is often depicting or about violent acts. Montag’s wife Mildred has two of her friends over to her house to watch some cartoons on her walls. As they watch, “...three White Cartoon Clowns chopped off each other's limbs to the accompaniment of immense oncoming tides of laughter. Two minutes more and the room whipped out of town to the jet cars wildly circling an arena, bashing and backing up and bashing each other again. Montag saw a number of bodies fly in the air” (Bradbury 90). Bradbury uses satire in this portion of the book to make the reader feel uneasy at first, but then to remind them how much of entertainment on TV today is driven through the same or similar acts. This idea coupled with powerful descriptions and strong word choice helps to drive home the concept of this society’s main foundation being violence. However, cartoons aren't the only violent acts being shown off to the public. Later on in the novel, Montag is a wanted criminal being chased by the government, and said chase is being televised to the public as their entertainment for the day. When Montag manages to give the Hound and the government the slip, they just kill a random person on camera to give the audience some sort of conclusion to their entertainment. “The innocent man stood bewildered. He stared at the Hound, not knowing what it was. He probably never knew…The Hound kept up into the air with a rhythm and a sense of timing that was incredibly beautiful. Its needle shot out...The victim was seized by Hound and camera in a great spidering, clenching grip. He screamed. He screamed. He screamed!” (Bradbury 142). Bradbury’s style comes to the forefront here, giving an appropriately written description of a terrible event televised to draw people’s attention away from other things that are arguably more important. This portion of the novel shows how twisted and corrupt the society has become while still keeping the concept of violence being the foundation of this society fresh in the reader’s mind.

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This image taken after the Beslan School Massacre demonstrates how devaastating school shootings can be. Motivations for school shootings can be traced back to different psychological issues or exposure to violence through multiple media platfoms.

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This chart displaing the different percentages of factors that can affect school violence demonsttrates just how many things can change someone's views into being more violent and viscious. Factors like difficult family situations, violence in video games, and easy access to guns are major factors seen on this list and in society.

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This chart showing scholars' views on how violence is shaping the society we know today shows that what people see through media and video games does have an effect on thier actions.

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This quote from the late JFK shows how people back then and still today rely on violent tendencies to accomplish tasks like inspiring change.

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This quote from John Oliver is basically calling out the government for failing to address a major safety issue, but awknowledging and fixing another. Violent school shootings are happening more and more freuquently as time passes, and seemingly nothing is being done to stop it.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/18yG9ST28DxHUW1WXt82s--r5wuiL2aApMiWNOO20nR0/edit

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TED Talk - Let's Treat Violence like a Contagious Disease

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TED Talk - Let's Treat Violence like a Contagious Disease

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This TED Talk by Gary Slutkin details him first working overseas treating epidemics, then returning to the US only to find it suffering from another epidemic: gun violence. He found that violence worked on a trend; if someone performs a violent act towards another person, that person will go and perform a similar act to other people, and then those people do the same. This in turn leads to a widespread epidemic of violence. Gary then conducted an experiment using different workers like violence interrupters and outreach workers (people that basically keep other people in a therapeutic state) and many community events to cut down violence in a township in Chicago. This experiment resulted in a 67% decrease in shootings in the area. This video demonstrates how violence can be spread through many different ways, not just through the media, and also what steps people are taking to prevent violent acts from occurring.

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Gary Slutkin: Let's treat violence like a contagious disease

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Dr. Gary Slutkin spent a decade fighting tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS epidemics in Africa. When he returned to the US, he thought he'd escape brutal epidemic deaths. But he began to look more carefully at gun violence -- whose spread follows the same pattern as an infectious disease.

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TED TAlk - School Shootings Can Be Prevented

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TED TAlk - School Shootings Can Be Prevented

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This TED Talk given by William Woodward explains how many efforts to prevent school shootings just aren't enough. Kids can easily look up videos of other school shootings on the Internet or demonstrate potentially dangerous behavior, and attempts to solve problems like this have included having mandatory clear backpacks or having only one entrance to the school. Woodward presents a different approach to solving the epidemic: collect data on situations like bullying, take a big bold stand against shootings, implement an anti-bullying program that has been proven to work in the past, have “active listening” be a major part of the school system, create a plan to keep the school safe that includes everyone involved in the school, encourage positive relationships between all students and all teachers, and update the “Safe School Plan” regularly to help deal with new potential threats. This video shows how violence can be spread through many different sources and, more importantly, how we can prevent violence in a school environment.

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School shootings can be prevented -- here's how | William Woodward | TEDxMileHigh

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Using his science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury alerts readers to societal problems, and according to current studies and research, was correct in his claim that violence in society is influenced by many external sources, more specifically through the media and screens.