Is society REALLY more dangerous than say 20 or 30 years ago, or does the deluge of so much news media make it seem so scary?

The world seems much more dangerous, statistically, because the population is much larger. If you have a larger population, and the same death rate occurring, then you'll see the numbers rise.

Also, the media tends to dwell on things that are of a dangerous nature.

I think that violent crime rates are down to early 1960's levels (correct me if I'm wrong) (which of course are a lot worse than 1940's rates). I think there's a LOT of media overexposure of fears. Who remembers "abducted children" in the 1980's, at purported rates which would have meant that one child in every elementary school class in the country was abducted... but this was a theme in Newsweek and the paper for years. Apples with the pesticide "Alar" was a mercifully brief episode of hysteria back in the 80's... the media just would not let go of it until growers promised to stop using it, despite the fact that people would have had to eat a pound of pure Alar every day to match the rates that the lab mice got.

It's probably no worse, I doubt people are getting more evil...I think that the way the news is these days we just hear about things that in the past would have gone unoticed

The most violent and murderous period of our history was the period from the end of the civil war to the 1930's. More murders, more assaults, and more strong armed robberies.

During my youth (50's 60's) kids were out of control, just as they are today. Watch "Blackboard jungle," or Rebel without a cause" or read some of the books of the day.

People are predators (note the "canine teeth in the front of your mouth" it has always been so, andit will always be thus.

You answered your own question. Your suspicion of the "deluge" is on the mark.

P.

It sure is in London!
When my dad was a kid (1940's)he grew up on the streets, he had fights just like everyone else, but they were just fist fights! Maybe the occasional brick ect.
When I grew (1980/90's) up the kids were carrying knifes pretty much as standard! Any time there was a real fight someone would get stabbed. I myself got stabbed once and have had a knife pulled on me numerous times.
Now it is time for my children to grow up, I am an agnostic but I thank god every day that I was able to get out of my beloved home city! People no longer bother fighting with fists/bricks or even knifes! They shoot each other!
It is so bad the schools now sell STAB PROOF SCHOOL UNIFORMS!!! (For anyone that is not aware, to be stab proof it also needs to be bullet proof.)

I'm 60 and I spent my working life dealing with the public. I assure you that the world now is a much scarier place than it was 30 years ago, and that has nothing to do with my age, just what I have seen and experienced.

Yes, I am 38 and when I was in my teens we fought with fists all the time, Now in the past 10 years I have fought kids and 4 of them shot me in the chest and 2 Stabbed me multible times in the chest

Yes, society is more dangerous, and yes, we're more aware of it by the deluge of news media. I can still remember the first reported serial killer in the U.S., Starkweather, because he went on his rampage in the state I grew up in. The entire country was shocked and outraged. Now it's fairly common place.