Reply #65: Don't tell me that the type of media you consume has no influence on you.

[Brigid]

I know it does. Here is a very simple example: When I saw "The Shining" for the first time years ago, I was jumpier than a cat for weeks afterward. I don't always react that way to a scary movie, but for some reason that one really got under my skin. It still gives me the creeps when I run across it on TV, which I have on one or two occasions. There seems to be a primitive part of the brain that reacts to something fictional the same way it would if it were real. Hasn't everyone cried at a sad movie, laughed at a comedy, smiled at a happy ending, or been inspired by seeing an act of heroism -- all fictional? I just don't see how a steady diet of violence, however fictional, can be healthy.