Fantasy Books, Movies and Tv Shows Are Damaging the Developing Minds and Personalities of Teenagers

Akhtar Muhammad Abid

Prof Naveed Rehan

SS 100-11

17 November 2011

Fantasy Books, Movies and TV Shows are Damaging the Developing Minds and Personalities of Teenagers

As a new-born baby opens his eyes, his journey of learning begins which continues throughout his life. Environment plays a vital role in the development of his mind and personality. He learns from everything he sees or hears without realizing whether it is good or bad for him. Most of his personality is shaped during his childhood and teenage. During teenage, one great contributor to the development of a teenager's personality is the fast modernization of technology. Books, television and internet are affecting too much of teenagers' behavior. These media play a vital role in grooming and shaping their personalities. Most of the content of these media is imaginary and based on fantasies. Fantasy publications are watched and read by majority of teenagers with great interest. Like all other things, these fantasy publications also play a very crucial role in the development and shaping of their minds and personalities. Although fantasy novels, movies and TV shows are a good source of entertainment for teenagers, nevertheless, they have negative effects on their minds and personalities because teenagers become so involved in those fantasies that they think of them as a reality, their minds get occupied by fears, they make fantasy characters their ideals and also become violent.

One of the most damaging effects of fantasy based entertainment on teenagers is that most of the teenagers become so much occupied by these fantasies that they start believing them a reality. The reason for this is that their minds are not fully mature and can easily be influenced. When teenagers get involved in too many fantasy movies and novels, their minds get engrossed by those fantasies. Most of the time, they think about those imaginary worlds and consider themselves a part of them. This makes them impractical and they lose interest in their real life activities. For example, fairy tales easily influence teenage girls and turn them into dreamers. They spend more time in thinking about that fantastic imaginary story instead of studying or doing something more constructive. Hence, fantasy based entertainment takes teenagers into imaginary worlds and deprives them of living a useful life by making them forget their real life necessities and obligations.

Another major negative effect of fantasy publications is that some of them are horrifying, which instill fears into the minds of teenagers and these fears then mould their personalities. For example, horror movies contain some imaginary beasts and evil beings. Thus, teenagers who watch them get to believe that these evils do exist in reality and hence, apprehensions occupy their minds. This makes it difficult for them to live a simple and fear free life. A study was carried out by J.Cantor and K.Harrison in 1999 and they arrived at a result that horror movies cause long lasting effects on the minds of teenagers. Their study revealed that teenagers who watch too many horror movies suffer from anxiety and start avoiding real life situations that are similar to those depicted in those movies (Cantor and Harrison 117). For example, a teenager who watches horror movies in which evils are shown to exist in mountainous areas is likely to avoid such areas. A similar study which was carried out and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health America showed that too much presentation of blood and injuries in horror movies negatively affect teenagers and such teenagers panic by seeing even minute injuries. They also concluded that the ratio of nightmares is much greater in teenagers who watch horror movies as compared to those who do not watch them (Sexton). Thus, too many horror movies and novels adversely affect the minds and personalities of teenagers and lead to their inability of living a simple and fright free life.

In addition, fantasy based entertainment adversely affects teenagers because teenagers make the characters of these fantasies their idols and try to imitate their impossible actions. The main characters portrayed in these fantasies are imaginary but most of the teenagers consider them real. Teenagers are impressed by the impressive supernatural abilities of these imaginary characters. Therefore, they admire them a lot and tend to follow them. However, the actions of these characters are not possible to be performed by human beings and hence such teenagers end up harming themselves. For example, Superman is famous for his flying and high jumps, and a teenager who admires him a lot may try to jump from a higher place and can ultimately injure or even kill himself. An Indian movie titled "Krrish" was shown throughout India in June 2006. In the movie, the main character has supernatural powers and can jump from higher places. Even an adult of twenty four tried to do what the hero did and jumped from the balcony of the cinema which resulted in the breaking of his one leg (Kumar). In short, teenagers fond of fantasy movies and novels subconsciously develop an admiration for fantasy characters and try to follow them, which is not possible and hence, this can lead to their injuries and even