" Captivating Moving Picture Sensations", Providing us with a need for Censorship as Early as 1912..

In the 21st century today, we take it for granted that we can hop in the car and drive to our local theater to see the newest movie filled with lots of action and thrilling scenes. Many people do not think however about how this fascination with movies actually started, and why people are so hooked on the idea of action, violence and other exciting images flashing across a giant screen. In the article " Captivating Moving Picture Sensation", it describes early fascination with action packed images, although they differ greatly from the movies of today. It also describes the idea of the first types of censorship for the new motion picture movement.
When you go into any movie theater today, you will always see a rating on each movie that is advertised. Most of the current ratings, ( PG, PG-13, R, etc) are based on content, language and of course racy and inappropriate pictures. Surprisingly this need for racy movies started as early as the early 1900's. According to the article the first " code of movie censorship" was established in 1908, in order to protect the large audience from racy, suggestive and negatively influential images and content. Even though the movies of the early 1900's were nothing as racy as the movies we imagine and see today, the " sometimes racy shadows on the wall concerned middle class moralists and social critics". These images stimulated the minds of the audience, especially the large number of young people frequently in the audiences.
The ongoing battle of " too much TV" for the younger generation that we hear so much about today also was originated around this time. The complaint of parents and teachers alike in current times is the impressions of violent video games and movies that hold the attention and get absorbed faster in the minds of the younger generation faster than the words in a textbook or a lecture from a teacher. Some educators of this time even went to the extreme of trying to mix the motion picture craze into the educational system in hopes of attracting the minds of the students better and to harness their attention spans. Now here is something to think about next time you decide to fall asleep in class while watching a movie!