Amman - Stories and dramatic works, and controversial plots, attract viewers with their short clips and events centred on revenge, conflict and taking rights by force.
اضافة اعلان
Multiple videos spread across social media platforms. Curiosity leads some people to follow them and learn their details, and sometimes others find in their events something that intersects with their own experiences, so the influence goes beyond viewing and extends to applying those stories to their own disputes and relationships.
Today, the dramatic works shownon screens and digital viewing platforms range from stories of revenge and psychological conflict, to family and romantic disputes, and characters fighting internal and external battles to win back their rights.
Some people turn to the situations and solutions these works present when thinking about how to handle their own disagreements, particularly in family, marital and social relationships. This is clearly visible in the comments that fill the clips of these works.
Promoting the idea that revenge brings justice
What happened with the Egyptian series Ta'a Nazil, which gained wide fame recently and drew mixed comments, gives some viewers a sense of satisfaction at the ability of "Nora" to take revenge. Some even learn from her character how to win back their rights, and some tricks, and how to spy on a partner.
On the other hand, these dramatic plots have drawn wide criticism for the way they present revenge, portraying it as a means of achieving personal justice.
This raises the question: what is the psychological and social impact of these works, and where does the enjoyment of viewing end and being influenced by what the screen shows begin?
Exaggeration and amplification to attract viewers
From a social perspective, sociologist Fadia Ibrahim explains that dramatic works dealing with revenge and family and social problems attract public interest because they touch on human feelings and experiences close to people's reality, such as injustice, betrayal, family conflict and a sense of unfairness.
She continues that the element of suspense, conflict and the desire to know how a confrontation ends makes viewers more emotionally attached to the events and characters.
From a social standpoint, Ibrahim argues that some of these works reflect problems that genuinely exist in society, but do not necessarily present a complete and realistic picture of them, and may resort to exaggeration and amplification to attract viewers.
Here lies the importance of distinguishing between drama as entertainment and drama as a reference for understanding reality or explaining human relationships.
Influence on how individuals think
Ibrahim points out that these works may influence how people think and deal with disagreements in their daily lives, especially when revenge is repeatedly presented as a victory or a restoration of dignity, without showing its negative consequences.
From a sociological perspective, people do not receive media messages in isolation from their environment, values and experiences. They may be influenced by the behavioural models they watch, and gradually begin to regard them as acceptable ways of handling disputes.
According to Ibrahim, the danger is that revenge shifts from socially rejected behaviour to a reaction that some consider justified. She stresses that we must understand that reclaiming rights does not necessarily mean harming others, and that justice rests on law, dialogue and the protection of rights, not on settling personal scores.
She also reminds that the spread of revenge scenes on social media platforms can lead to these behaviours being imitated in real life. She explains that social media multiplies the reach of dramatic scenes, and does not merely show them, but reproduces them through short clips, comments and interaction, which may give some behaviours greater reach and normalisation.
Responsibility of drama makers not to glorify violence
Ibrahim explains that the danger lies in cutting a scene out of its dramatic context and focusing on the moment of revenge and triumph, without showing the consequences that follow.
She adds that some individuals, especially those who are less mature or more influenced by media models, may treat these scenes as methods that can be applied in their own lives.
She stresses that this is where the responsibility of drama makers and social media platforms comes in, to avoid glorifying violence or presenting revenge as heroism. It also highlights the responsibility of families, educational institutions and the media to strengthen critical thinking among individuals, so that viewers can distinguish between what suits dramatic presentation and what suits real life.
The most important message, according to Ibrahim, is that drama has the right to portray human conflicts, but it does not necessarily have to make revenge a value, or turn harm into a model of victory.
She says: "The strong person is not the one who can harm the person who wronged them, but the one who can protect their rights and dignity without becoming a copy of those who wronged them."
Psychotherapist and family and educational consultant Haneen Al-Batoush notes that a person's attraction to dramatic works that deal with revenge and conflict cannot be interpreted simply as a love of violence or enjoyment of others' suffering. It is often linked to a deep psychological and human need to feel justice and fairness, and to restore balance after experiencing injustice.
Psychological identification with dramatic characters
Al-Batoush explains that people are naturally affected by scenes of oppression, betrayal and humiliation. When they see a dramatic character who has been harmed and then manages to confront the person who wronged them, they may feel psychological relief, even if the method used to achieve that is morally or legally unacceptable.
From a psychological perspective, Al-Batoush says this phenomenon can be understood through what is called "psychological identification" with dramatic characters, where the viewer does not simply follow events, but lives part of the character's emotional experience, empathising with their pain, anger and desire to restore their dignity.
According to Al-Batoush, these scenes may touch on the personal experiences of some viewers, and the dramatic scene can become an imaginary space in which a person feels they have achieved what they could not achieve in reality.
However, there is an important psychological difference between feeling satisfied that a wronged person has regained their rights, and feeling happy that someone else has been harmed. The first may reflect a need for justice, while the second may be linked to spite, accumulated anger, or a desire to see the offending party suffer, according to Al-Batoush.
Al-Batoush stresses that this distinction matters, because some dramatic works deliberately blur justice and revenge, presenting harm as victory, cruelty as strength and forgiveness as weakness. This is where the real problem lies in the psychological and value messages that viewers may carry with them after a work ends.
She explains that the sense of relief felt while watching revenge differs from genuine psychological recovery, because recovery requires understanding the painful experience, regulating the emotions attached to it, and regaining a sense of safety and control over one's life, rather than merely imagining punishing the person who caused the pain.
On the impact of these scenes on real behaviour, Al-Batoush says psychology shows that people may learn certain patterns of thinking and behaviour through observation, especially when the avenging character is presented attractively and wins admiration and reward.
According to Albert Bandura's social learning theory, an individual may form ideas about behaviour and its consequences through the models they watch. When they are repeatedly sent the message that revenge restores respect, brings strength and ends pain, their judgement of some real-life situations may be affected, especially if they have previous difficulties controlling anger or dealing with frustration.
From a social and family perspective, Al-Batoush says the issue becomes more important when dramatic ideas move into human relationships, and some people begin to handle marital, family or social disputes with the logic of settling scores, rather than through dialogue or fair demands for their rights.
Awareness helps people reclaim their rights
She believes the most dangerous aspect of revenge drama is not the revenge scene itself, but the moment when a viewer becomes convinced that justice can only be achieved through cruelty, and that their dignity returns only when they see the person who wronged them suffer.
She continues that true psychological strength does not lie in the ability to answer a wound with a greater wound, but in having the awareness that helps a person reclaim their rights, protect themselves, and deal with pain without losing their values or becoming a person who practises the injustice they once rejected.
Al-Batoush believes the impact of dramatic works that show revenge before children raises a deeper educational question: how children and adolescents form their concepts of power, justice and resolving disputes. She notes that children are not born with a complete understanding of these concepts, but gradually acquire them from family, school, friends, media and the situations they experience.
Psychologically, the impact of these scenes varies by age. A younger child may focus on the visible action and the immediate outcome, seeing that the avenging character has become stronger, without fully grasping the moral, psychological and legal consequences of their behaviour.
An adolescent, meanwhile, who is going through a stage of identity-building, asserting independence and sensitivity to how others see them, may be particularly influenced by characters who link dignity with prestige and the ability to strike back, especially if they are living under social pressure or facing ridicule or bullying.
The importance of conscious media education
This may be reflected in how some children handle their everyday disagreements, according to Al-Batoush. Instead of expressing displeasure, asking for help or trying to solve the problem, they may resort to threats, insults or public shaming on social media. Here the educational challenge becomes correcting the concept of strength, not just preventing aggressive behaviour.
Al-Batoush stresses that the role of the family should not rest on supervision and prohibition alone, but on conscious media education. The aim is not to stop children from seeing every conflict or dispute in dramatic works, but to teach them how to analyse what they watch.
In Al-Batoush's view, successful upbringing does not simply mean monitoring every screen in front of children, but building in them a psychological and moral frame of reference that helps them make the right decisions even when their parents are not beside them.
She believes that a family which gives its children emotional security, listens to their feelings, and teaches them how to set boundaries lays an important foundation for protecting them from imitating aggressive models, and makes them better able to distinguish between the heroism on screen and the responsibility of real life.
Al-Batoush stresses that the spread of revenge clips on social media platforms poses a psychological and educational challenge that must be addressed with an awareness that goes beyond warning about negative content.
She explains that we now live in a digital environment where dramatic scenes can be turned into short, powerful messages, presenting revenge in an appealing way, sometimes linking it to strength, dignity and the restoration of prestige, while missing the real consequences that can follow from vengeful behaviour.
The danger lies not only in the scene itself, but in repeating a message that may lead some young people to see revenge as a natural or acceptable response to an insult, according to Al-Batoush.
She adds that educational and media institutions bear an important responsibility in entrenching a culture of conflict resolution, through programmes that develop emotional intelligence skills, assertive communication, managing disagreements, and critical thinking about digital content.
Most importantly, according to Al-Batoush, young people should learn that a clip spreading does not mean the message it carries is right, that a large number of likes does not give a behaviour moral legitimacy, and that some content is designed to provoke emotion and attract attention rather than to present a healthy human model.
Al-Batoush concludes that discussing revenge in drama and on social media is not merely a debate about the type of content we watch. It is a deeper discussion about the values we instil in our children, the meanings we give to strength, dignity and justice, and the way we teach future generations to deal with pain and disagreement.
Resource: Al-Ghad. Reporting by Rasha Kanakrieh
