Can television and/or video games influence behavior? How and/or why?

I very strongly believe that television and video games are influencing the action and behavior of people today, especially in young children or teenagers.

Action movies and action games i think have had a great influence on kids and the way they act and treat each other. Kids know all the stuff about killing people from the television shows and video games that they are constantly exposed to. Now more than every there is violence in elementary through high school aged students. Kids bring guns or knifes to school and threaten people, because that is what they are allowed to do on the video games that they are playing at home. This is very scary to me, that these young people are so comfortable with watching this stuff and don't take there eyes off of the computer or television screen for hours and hours at a time.

Also i believe that the movies that are coming out these days are slowly but surly getting worse and worse, and now you can't even watch a PG movie without it having a cuss word in it. I believe that television and movies can shape and influence ones behavior without them even realizing it. If we watch things on a movie we may decide that it sounds like fun and end up making decisions we never would have made in the first place.

Think about it next time your playing a video game or watching a new TV show.