If you search 'girl fight' on YouTube, you get more than 70,000 hits. You search 'street fight', you get around 126,000 hits.

Recently, authorities said that teens are playing a new game where they walk up to a random person and slap/smack them in the face, aka "Happy Slapping". Happy Slap produces 5000+ hits on Youtube.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_slap

Increasing more and more kids are posting violent acts on Youtube or Myspace and view these attacks as 'funny' or 'pranks'.

And most recently, the Lakeland, Florida attack of a teenager girl by 6 other girls have gained national attention because they videotaped it for the intent of posting it up on the internet.

Why has this desensitization been happening in our country? Is it because of movies? Television? Games like GTA? Or violent music?

We had this in the Uk about 2-3 years back. It'll die down in a few months when they make some high profile arrests.

Ah, alwas to jump to the "computer games and rock music" argument Could be anything really. Class frustration, boredom, lack of sports exercise to take out frustration, peer pressure, low morals (link to parenting there)lots of things will make people turn to violence or risk taking. As for being desensitized, I don't believe thats happened. You can play violent PC games and watch gory films all day, but you'll still be violently sick when you see your first road traffic accident in real life.

I agree with eeonz: Parenting or the lack of, if my children EVER feel that they are reduced to this sort of thing, I'll be happy to tell them how the wrong stranger they decide to slap just might pull out a gun and start shooting.

I think people are just stupid and/or attention whores. It's not like crap like this never happened before. But now that it's so easy to record video (cell phones) and post it for everybody to see (YouTube), it's become more apparent that this stuff happens on a daily basis.

We had an incident like this back in the day where two guys unleashed hell on some loser in a school bathroom. This isn't the first time it's ever happened, but because someone was smart enough to record and display it for the world to see, then people became more self-aware about such incidents.

Who's to blame? Technology, at first, which leads to humans, which leads to mankind. Yes, mankind is to blame.

A more detailed step-by-step procedure:

1. Dumb people
2. ???
3. EPIC WIN

Agreed. With the advent of sites like YouTube (or, more generally, the Internet), it's easier than ever for people to get attention. Unfortunately, what often gets people's attention is stupid shit like slapping or beating others.

Sure, this probably happened before, but to a much lesser extent -- "happy slapping" and related violence isn't fun unless the whole world can watch you do it. Everyone wants their 15 minutes, no matter what it takes.

I think a source that's overlooked is the resources that people have nowadays. Granted, beating people up only takes your hands... but there are a lot more incidences of violence that involve other things... and I think that now people have greater resources with technology. And with those things that don't involve other resources, they know that if they post it online someone is going to see it.

My question is simple: Why do people, or Americans in this case, believe that violence is transgressive?

There are millions of Americans who do not need to act violently to have a good time. So, what do you say about those people? I'm sick and tired of the idiots getting so much attention. Instead of broadcasting that 6 teens jumped 1 girl, tell me what kid got accepted to college on a full academic scholarship or something. Is that too much to ask for?

Actually, yes. Because honestly, that is NOT that amazing of a feat. Congratulations, you got into college, along with MILLIONS of other kids.

However, these select handful of kids who are acting violently need to be addressed. Their behavior is dysfunctional and detrimental to them and society.

What do you purpose... we ignore the bad and focus on the good?

People are getting assaulted and hurt because of these reckless actions.

I personally don't like violence, and find slapstick jokes pretty damn boring and most of the time cliche. I don't know why people would find it fun? Maybe it has something to do with the psychological effects of watching someone fall over and break their nose, it makes them feel good because they're not the one falling over. That's what I've thought of, but I'm sure it makes no sense.

First off, I said let's celebrate the child who received a full academic scholarship in college...not the child who got into college. Receiving a college education is very important and it is something very few Americans have actually done, despite what you may believe. And any man, woman, or child who is accepted into, completes some, is rewarded in or graduates from college should be proud.

Secondly, I propose that "youngsters" not receive media attention and some quasi-celeb status because they acted in a way that is, as you say, detrimental to society. Are you telling me that socio-paths like Charles Manson should be allowed to speak publicly because we want to acknowledge the good and the bad, or the normal and the abnormal people in society?

I do not think that we should ignore these individuals- yes, their behavior(s) should be confronted, but not by you, not by me and certainly not by legal analysts or news anchors. So far, have we solved anything by broadcasting this stupidity on the internet, newspapers, magazines, or television? Aren't children still behaving violently? These adolescents shouldn't need to be discussed by Nancy Grace and her colleagues - they need highly skilled and educated counselors to help them.

I think as more time passes by us all, the media gets more comfortable with leaking things and making more things that we thought were so inappropriate are allowed to come out and show their true colors.

I think everything has its part, the games, the movies, television, and the internet. The internet gets millions and billions of hits and having things like youtube and myspace that people actually let consume them is an issue. Part of it can be with how parents are lacking? But what are to do when you have a teenage girl or boy that are in their rebellious stages and will do whatever the hell they want. I'll say that we can sit here and point fingers but everyone does their part. Also with places like myspace and where people can pretty much advertise themselves and feed off attention, then eventually they are going to do stupid ass stuff to get more attention and to keep the attention they already have.