Do you know how much the media influences you? The documentary The Mean World Syndrome explains George Gerbner’s cultivation theory and the effect the media has on our lives. Cultivation theory studies the impact that television has on the way we see the world. Gerbner says that the amount of time we watch television is proportional to how fearful we are of the world around us. This mean world syndrome says that heavy viewers of TV will have more anxiety, fear, and anger and think the world is a more dangerous and scary place than it actually is. Television is has increasing become more full of violent content and it makes us more aware of what could happen to us. If you just finished a Criminal Minds marathon, you will probably be looking over your shoulder a few more times than normal later. The news especially has a great influence on how we view the world. The top story is always a violent crime or fire and we connect more personally with it because it is close by. A person who solely watches the local news all day will probably have some fear when they are outside.
As a little kid I remember being scared that something on TV would happen in real life, but I did not watch so much television that it was a constant fear. When I’m not at school I definitely watch more TV because I have access to it. At school because I don’t have cable, I rarely watch the news or anything that’s not on Netflix. At school I depend more on other types of media for news. I definitely think what we see on TV affects how we see the world. I am not greatly impacted by TV, but I still see the mean world syndrome being valid. Watching the news and seeing violent shows on television makes me aware that there are bad things out there and that I should be cautious, but it doesn’t paralyze me with fear to the point where I don’t want to leave as it does with some heavy users.