Screams and shouts fill the room as my classmates watch, their eyes riveted to the screen. I stare at the multi-colored carpet, thinking of the colors, the desk legs, anything to distract myself from the temptation to find out what is going on. The chaos dies suddenly, and I glance up…. just in time to see a man’s leg ripped off from the knee down.

My fellow peers watched in amusement and fascination, even boredom. The gory movie was nothing they hadn’t seen before. It was “cool” and “something you just had to watch.” To me, it was sickening.

I grew up in a household without a TV. Therefore, I haven’t been exposed to the bloody normality of the media. Zombies, a hot topic in the teenage world, portray violence to the extreme. The worst nightmares I’ve ever had were of these brain-eating monsters. I haven’t watched, over and over, zombies “in action.” I’m not immune to the violence and horror of these made-up creatures.  The internet is filled with mentions of the zombie apocalypse and the anticipation of attempting to survive “just like I’ve seen” in movies and on the television.

Halloween is another example for how much the “scare” has faded. I would never step in a haunted house because I’ve never found any pleasure in being frightened. I know a girl who loves to go because the scenes are “fake-looking.” I can’t really say that she’s wrong (I’ve never been in a haunted house) but I do know that she’s exposed herself to enough horror to build a thick skin. When a person exposes himself to horror again and again, he becomes desensitized to the feelings first felt.

I feel very privileged to have grown up in a home without a T.V. and without the exposure to violence most children experience. I don’t think people realize how much power a television has in shaping daily life. I grew up reading instead of watching the news. True, I don’t always know what is going on in the world, but I also am not exposed to the horrors of mankind.

I don’t think people realize the effect media violence has on their own mental perception of what is “okay.” According to a study, media violence can lead to a lack of sympathy and a tendency to snap. In 2005, the average 18-year-old had watched 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders. I’m not necessarily against watching movies and TV: I just want teenagers to use caution when choosing what to watch.  The enjoyable bloody media can affect anyone during his lifetime. After all, when someone watches killings over and over, death becomes normality.