Media+Influence+on+Teens,+Distracted+Driving,+and+Video+Game+Addiciton

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Overview
In many ways the media influences people throughout the day. The media can get to people through television, the web, newspapers, pictures, and social networking (Drevitch). Most people today use those things on a daily basis. Since people are exposed to the media as much as they are they are more easily influenced to think what the media thinks. With the influence the media have caused teens to think things about themselves that aren't true, drivers to become distracted while on the road, and people to become addicted to games.



Media's Influence
People are influenced by all of the media they are exposed to like books, TV, movies, video games, and music. Violence in the media can cause people to act more aggressive and violent towards others. One study said that by the age of 18 teens have seen at least 40,000 people killed on TV (Drevitch). Even cartoons that little kids watch have violent content. Even though there are warnings and labels the exposure to violence is not reduced.

**Video Game Addiction**
Problems that occur because of video game addiction can range from seemingly meaningless to something that can end up destroying a person's life. Some of those problems are things like lacking in hygiene, not eating enough, not exercising, playing for extreme amounts of time, lying about playing, and poor grades ("Addicted"). The lack of hygiene, not eating enough, and not exercising don't seem all that bad at first but if it continues can become extremely bad. If someone is playing for extreme amounts of time then how social they are is affected. Many times video game addicts will lie about how much they are playing. For the teenagers or college students there will be a definite decrease in grades.

**Distracted Driving**
Many problems occur from distracted driving like car crashes, pedestrians getting hit by cars, and people getting killed. Driving distracted is doing something like texting, eating, putting on make-up, shaving, or even talking with friends (Speeding). While driving distracted it is easy to drift into another lane or not see someone crossing the road. If that happens then you can hit another car or hit the pedestrian and possibly kill someone.

Media's Influence
A few of the ways to prevent the media from influencing you are to keep a journal or possibly not expose yourself to advertisements for a day. People can also make a timeline of the different types of media they use on a daily basis. The media is trying to monitor content by instituting ratings and parental warnings. On TV the [|ratings] include R, NC-17, X, PG-13, and G. Video game [|ratings] include E, E-10+, T, M, and AO (Martin).

**Video Game Addiction**
There are very few solutions for video game addiction but there are many ways to help prevent it. The best solution is to get professional help from a therapist (Steinburg). Ways to prevent video game addiction are things like monitoring how long someone is playing, selecting games that are content appropriate, and making sure video games aren't taking over other parts of a person's life. Most of those things can be done using [|parental] controls. It is always better to prevent video game addiction then to help solve the chaos that comes from it.

**Distracted Driving**
The solutions for distracted driving are pretty simple. The solutions include adding technology to monitor how well people are driving and teaching people why distracted driving is such an issue (Cooney). Another solution being done are having laws that ban doing certain things while behind the wheel like texting or using your cellphone without hands free.

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**External Links**

 * [|Pennsylvania Vehicle Code]**


 * [|Online Gamers Anonymous]**


 * [|State Cell Phone Use and Texting While Driving Laws]**