Movie and Television: Influence on Behavior

[7] How do movies and television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Movies and televisions, both as visual entertainments, present us a direct scene we might not encounter in daily life or we might find it deja vu, where a story happens. We enjoy watching them and we are inevitably influenced by them.

Behavior of children is likely to change because of imitation. Children are prone to new and peculiar things in movies and televisions. The characters are usually dressed up lavishly, distinguishing them from common people. The heros accomplish impossible tasks, wining the heart of beautiful ladies. The humorous lines, impressing the audience, are mentioned by the audience many times. All these factors are intriguing for a child, getting him excited and inclined to imitate instantaneously.

However, for most of us, the influence on behavior is due to recognition. It's a common thinking, why can't I do it while he could. After watching the movie Forrest Gump, many start running regularly. Their latent recognition of Gump's persistence and commitment beats the laziness they had. One of my friends decided to find his true love after watching Cinema Paradiso, because he realized how important a true lover is for him when he cried over the scene where Toto contemplates on the kissing montage, pondering on the young love he cherished and lost. He met his girlfriend after a few months, finishing the long bachelor years fast.

Though recognition changes our behavior, endowing us power to do something we might do but we are reluctent to do, the more excessive change is due to contradiction. When we find a disparate decision from our own in a movie or television drama, the contradiction occurs, pushing us to think extensively. The famous movie Shawshank Redemption have two attitudes towards institutionalization: one is to get used to it and die with it, the other is to fight against it and find your own way out of it. Andy Defresne made the latter amazingly, exemplifying for us how to deal with a despair difficulty. Many of us choose to get used to the institutionalization while his example make us to think twice. After watching this movie, I feel myself institutionalized in the domestic university and made my decision to find a Ph.D program abroad.

Just like talking to a friend, the amiable appearance of movies and television attracts us, letting us go close enough to understand their stories and reasons, showing us the possible results we never imagine, demonstrating for us how powerful our potentials are. We obtain recognitions, solve contradictions, and get busy changing our behaviors.