When thinking about media that strikes emotions I am reminded of many images from my childhood from my favorite television show, "Are you Afraid of the Dark?" This television was obviously supposed to give kids a sense of suspense and fear and since I was left feeling terrified, this effect was exaggerated for me.

Thinking back, I can see that the show used excitation transfer from one suspenseful event to another to keep kids engaged and on the edge of their seat. There would be an eerie sense from the beginning of the episode as the kids were sitting around the campfire. There would then be a scary event at the beginning of the episode with subsequent events feeding the adrenaline from the initial event.

The show was also playing off the curiosity and the sensation seeking desire of children. The shock of the images have stuck with me to adulthood. This shows that the images that the media use to evoke emotions, especially from children, has the potential to stay for longer than intended. Children today see much more violence and horror in television and in video games than ever before. Here is a website that article that discusses the reason why children are less affected by horror shows than they were before. The writer cites Dr. Aviva Briefel who likens the desensitization of kids to media violence to a vaccine. This is because they are slowly introduced to an increasing number of scary images so that eventually they are not affected by those images. I can agree that they are less sensitive to these images that my generation was, however I can't agree that these kids aren't affected by the images they see.