Social Media Effects On School Shootings

There is no questioning that in today's school system, one of the major issues is, and always has been, school violence. Which can range from a brawl amongst students, to more tragic events, for example, school shootings. Many of us have witnessed a fight in middle school or high school. Which usually have no permanent effects. But school shootings usually have a different outcome, on January 4, 2012, in my hometown of Brownsville Texas, a student from Cummings middle school was shot and killed after running around the school with a gun, which was later identified to be a pellet gun. As we try to understand why students commit these acts of violence, we have no option but to put some of the blame on the media violence. Media violence is the portraying of aggression and violence through any sort of media platforms. In the past, most people have blamed video games such as Grand Theft Auto. However, today, the most common source of media consumption is through social medias such as Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. While it is mostly used for entertainment purposes, a large amount of the content is all sorts …show more content…
Many students are constantly getting physically hurt and sometimes killed by the acts of violence that are not only being promoted through video games and television, but in today's society, also social media. Social media, without a doubt, influences teenagers because it shows us what is “cool” at the moment. Many people would define a viral video as “cool” and if that video happens to be about a shooting or two people fighting, then the viewers will be more prone to commit similar act. We must shine a light on media violence being consumed through social media and figure out a way to tame it, because with social media being such a big part in everyone's life, the risk of a student committing a violent act and others getting hurt by it are much