The social learning theory in chapter 13 states that some people imitate what they see on TV or in any media through process called observational learning. I believe this to be very true and there are many cases that this has actually occurred. For instance, a while ago there were two people in Louisiana that murdered people and got caught. They tried to get away with it by saying that the movie Natural Born Killers made them do it. In other words they watched the movie and thought it was a cool thing to do so they imitated them. Although this is just one extreme case, it is still evident in other less obvious ways.
This theory is one of the main reason people are trying to put bans on violent video games. Even though there is no recorded cases of someone blaming a video game for a murder but there are records of kids becoming more violent in school because of certain video games. In fact just recently a kid in England ran away from home because his father took away his xbox. He mentioned that the child had been a lot more violent and ill tempered after playing Call of Duty 4 and tried to blame Microsoft. Now Microsoft put out a 50,000 dollar reward to whomever finds this kid. Not only does this display the theory but it also shows that even the manufacturers of these products know what is going on as well.
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I think jake makes a good key point with mentioning natural born killers. Another example would be how cigarette companies have tried to get actors to smoke their brand in movies so kids would see the ones they most look up to doing it, therefore they would find it cool if they did it. Observational learning probably occurs more then people may think it does. People are more likely to do things they see others that are considered "above them" because they see them doing it even though they do it sub consciously.
I agree with jake's examples of the Social Learning Theory. With out proper supervision, the immature, developing brain is at risk for "media saturation". If any individual is over exposed to a media form, their grip on reality can easily be lost.
Another example of subjects loosing a grasp on reality is evident with RPG players. The false online world in which these gamers log into virtually every day, can dissolve a persons ability to socialize outside of an internet chat room.
In conclusion, anyone can do anything they want. Watch moveis all day, play video games ect. But they have to take a step outside every now and then to realize they live in the REAL WORLD.
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