Do movies and video games control our minds?

I sat, my face intently staring at a bright screen. My hands clenched on my knees in anticipation. Loud noises burst through my headphones. I was so entranced that I didn’t even hear my mom walk into my room. Almost out of nowhere I heard “you look like a mind-controlled drone,” and that made me jump.

Movies and video games have the power to influence and shape one’s mind, especially a teenager or child whose mind is still developing. Screens are a powerful medium for transmitting messages and ideas, changing and molding the viewer’s mind. They leave vivid impressions and messages on our minds which leads to emotional involvement.

Movies and video games are presented in such a way that they can influence one to believe something or even change minds. They are biased, messages can be hidden behind an aesthetically pleasing story. Movies help people make connections to real world issues and problems, this can lead to people’s minds being influenced and brainwashed into believing what they are shown.

Movies and video games influence people’s ideas about global warming. For example, the movie “Mad Max: Fury Road”, focusses on a post-apocalyptic world. The public has turned psychotic and insane. The science fiction movie portrays apocalypse as something that is not likely to happen for many years. This influenced my mind because I never could believe that humans today can never become anything similar to the barbaric creatures portrayed in the movie. The movie leads me to believe that the apocalypse is very far away, and I have nothing to worry about, however, that is not the case. Doing research on global warming really familiarized me with the world’s state, and how close we are to an apocalypse. “Fallout 4”, a popular post-apocalyptic video game also portrays many humans as being grotesquely diseased and clinically insane. This conveys a similar effect that “Mad Max” does, it shows how far humans are from an apocalypse.

Popular and influential war movies and games lead me to believe that war is exciting, fun, and heroic. “Wonder Woman”, glorifies World War I and portrays that everyone in war is a hero.  The slow-motion fighting and selfless sacrifice at the end of the movie can influence teens such as myself into believing that war is glorious. This is propaganda, war movies such as these can convince teens to join the military because they now see war as heroic and sacrificial. Call of Duty, a popular video game franchise also glorifies war and shows teens that war is fun. The first-person shooter game is marketed towards teens. It shows teens that war is fun and games because when they play they can unlock new weapons and showcase all of their achievements. Overall, hidden propaganda in war movies and video games are used to glorify war and the military.

Overall, the overmarketed ideals of a sci-fi post-apocalyptic movies and video games provoke the idea that the world is very far from apocalypse because worlds are depicted to be alien. And war games and movies show that war is sublime and is something that teens should be a part of.