They noted an increased suggestibility found in children who ‘space out’ while consuming television or film media and pointed out that, by the time they reach adolescence, the average American has spent tens of thousands of hours in front of television sets, has watched as many murders and “engineered acts of violence” and has been exposed to hundreds of thousands of commercials filled with “arbitrary symbols of coded commands and meanings.”. . .
The advent of the postmodern era has radically disrupted the notion of identity. In a world rampant with “self-referential illusions and postmodern self-parodies,” multiple, simultaneous realities and corresponding selves exist and are greatly informed, even created, by popular media. In 2012, a Boston Globe opinion piece expounded on the Batman Shooting, by observing how “it is possible for any of us, of any age or gender, to avoid reality all day in America by keeping our eyes fixed on our screens.”. . .
“I think Tim is his own worst enemy. He was very rigid. He was overly responsible and conscientious. Sometimes he was hard on others. He had lofty goals for himself and he had the same expectations for others. When they didn’t live up to Tim he could get his back up. He had no use for a job done half-way.”. . .
Tim said that when his father lost his temper, he usually dealt with it by retreating to his bedroom and learned to prevent Bill’s tendency to ‘overreact’ by avoiding certain topics of discussion. . . .
According to Tim, while Bill never learned to deal with his anger properly, the main thing he learned from his father was, ironically, the value of controlling his own. “[I] learned a deeper lesson by experiencing my dad’s short temper (surprised, huh?) […] I would never ‘fly off the handle’ without thinking thru my reaction and subsequent action. I would go thru life not yelling every time the situation was adverse, and I would not make a habit of raising my voice when not necessary to get results.” . . .
Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh, by Wendy Painting
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