Can films influence young minds?

“Violence violence violence, I don’t like violence, but violence likes me”… This was the dialogue that I came to hear from my 5 year old cousin, when he was about to encounter a small fight with me. I was dealing with mixture of expressions and emotions like, I was thrilled as well as petrified at the same time to hear it. I was thrilled because, he was so dramatic and clear with his language and his body movements. But was petrified too, because I was unaware of the filmy dialogue and also considering the meaning of the dialects. Most of all, I was compelled to see that movie by him and watched it too.
To be honest, I was mesmerized to watch the heroism events and counter back towards the villains. But when deeply analysed, it will be quoted heroic in the film but not in the real world entity.
Nowadays, films occupy a main piece of the media products consumed by the people. For instance, through the development of multiplexes and popularity of movie ideas, Korean Industry, so called “Hallyuwood” has become one of the world’s most active markets.
However, the effectiveness of films’ impact remains an open question in psychological science. There will be a hero, who will be challenging law & order, fight against crime/ terror/ extremism/ corruption. And there will be this villain, who will be against of all these “Stereotypes” are “Stereotypes”.
According to me, films are not polluting the youth. Currently, movies usually fall into the ensuing genres, action, thriller, or romance. The youth does try to replicate whatever is shown in the movies and this mirror in their dressing style, their way of talking and so on. Eyeing movies allows us to disjoin for a while and allows us to comfort. Movies inspire ideas and help us in understanding what is going on around the world.
It has also been scientifically proven that eyeing movies is good for us. Like watching horror movies can burn nearly 200 calories at a time and improves brain activity.
But at the same time, the prolonged time in watching films/senses, physical inactivity, presenting inaccurate detailing can affect their reality too. The so called educated people are no different from the ordinary laity. Besides, its impact on economy, society/politics, it is affecting on youths/young minds’ minds. They are getting exposed to Love, hatred, vengeance, violence, sexual harassment and so many other things shown within a short span of time. There are changes for children and youth may get desensitized and could be insensitive to crimes subsequently in life. We are becoming a culture that increasingly congregates around on-screen plots. There are also children, who are thinking, whatever showing on-screen can be performed effortlessly by them.
Can movies teach us things that are beneficial to our lives from a moral perspective? My answer would be a “Yes”, because Movies such as ‘BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG’, ‘NEERJA’, ‘RAAZI’ etc. bought a sense of patriotism and motivation but also the negative/grey shades as well. Movies such as ‘DANGAL’, ‘MARY KOM’, etc. encouraged girls to participate in sports activities and helped in discouraging gender inequality.
And recently I watched a movie which was based an epic Tamil dynasty history. I am not pointing out the name, but that was something pushed me to read the book. Thus there are films who are giving information on normalizing mental health issues.
So watching a movie is not a concern, we just need to restrict ourselves regarding what we are eyeing and how much time we are spending on watching movies. And we should also make sure that movies do not influence us in a negative way that we forget our own weights.