Index IntroductionLimitations in our choicesImpacts of watching violence on TVHuman costs of watching violence on TVImpact of video on meIntroduction In this essay I will use The Mean World Syndrome: Media Violence and the Cultivation of Fear in order to analyze the effects of media violence on American society as a whole. I'll start by explaining how socialization limits the choices we make because of how we grow up and internalize our culture. I will then move on to analyze how watching violence on TV affects Americans by making us a more fearful society and making us more critical of certain groups of people. I will conclude this essay by explaining the impact the video had on me as a person and what I personally took away from the video. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Limits of our choices According to our text, socialization refers to "the lifelong social experience through which people develop their human potential and learn culture" ( Macioni, p. 84). Socialization limits the choices we make due to the internalization of the culture in which we grow up and learn throughout our lives. Due to the agents of socialization, which are family, school, peers and mass media (lesson notes, chapter 3), we are limited as a society. Every person grows up in some sort of culture, and within each culture the agents of socialization are used differently. We internalize the culture we grow up in and this in turn gives us an idea of ​​how we should act in our specific culture. The first agent of socialization, the family, ensures that each person comes from a different context. Every family has a different monetary and racial situation, and every person is raised differently as a child. This affects how a child views and treats others. As Macionis suggests, “nothing is more likely to produce a happy, well-adjusted child than a loving family” (Macionis, p. 94). The family in which a person grows up limits how that person views and treats others. The second agent, school, influences how children treat people from different backgrounds. As children begin school and meet people with different situations, they learn to understand how different factors in someone's life make them who they are (Macionis, p. 94). School limits how children learn to get along with different people. Third, the peer group affects the child even in the early stages of socialization. Among peers, children learn who they are as individuals, as well as their personal interests and desires. Peers limit how a child gets along and socializes with others. Finally, the mass media have an enormous influence on the socialization of a culture. Especially in American culture, the influence of mass media on society affects the culture as a whole. We learn to think and act differently depending on what we are shown. Mass media is the most important agent for this essay; the way mass media influences us in terms of violence is widely demonstrated in American society. The way mass media limits America as a culture is incredible. Without the influence of the mass media, Americans would not see violence the way we do today. The Impact of Watching Violence on TV Violence in the mass media has created fear in American culture. Due to increasing coverage of violent acts on local news stations and violent scenes.