You have to love relatives. I couldn’t even enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner without my lovely Aunt Mildred asking me about school. The one thing I really wanted to think about on my break!!! When we finally got on the topic of my Popular Culture class, she might as well have been laughing in my face. Aunt Mildred just didn’t understand how popular culture could be considered a legitimate academic course of study. That was my chance to put that old bat in her place.
I explained to her, that similarly to a book being judged by its cover, you can’t judge course content by the title of the class. I told her that what I had learned in this course so far was nothing to be scoffed at. Popular culture is everywhere. It incorporates television, movies, mass media, video games, books, clothing, music and so much more. I told her that a course in popular culture has academic benefit because studying this; it allows people to become introspective in thought. By looking at what is around you, you are forced to examine your value structure, belief system, and society in general. Popular culture has an influence on peoples’ choices, beliefs, and actions.
Further into our conversation, I told Aunt Mildred about the blog assignment I have been working on all semester. She didn’t quite understand that the X-Men movies could be adapted into academic study. I let her know that the reason I chose this topic was because of my enjoyment of the cartoons when I was young. I briefly skimmed over the plot of the movies and suggested that there was much more to the story than she thought. We talked about how the main concepts of the movies could be generalized to many of society’s problems. The conflict between human vs. mutant could be compared with good vs. evil, black vs. white, gay vs. straight. I showed her my video clip analysis and explained that it is important for young adults to learn that just because someone is different, does not mean there is anything wrong with them. It is a valued lesson, that of tolerance and acceptance. Today people are sometimes blinded to the fact that intolerance is still a major issue. There are many lessons to be learned through the study of popular culture.
All in all, my aunt felt a little embarrassed by the time she left. Being a respected scholar of romantic poetry, she should have realized how important popular culture is. I felt the need to inform her that romantic poetry, for instance, is a form of popular culture. Take Shakespeare’s writing for example, he was so popular in his time and after and had such an influence on different play writes and poets. I think she finally understood how popular culture is a valid academic subject.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Everything Bad is Good for You!
The book Everything bad is good for you, by Steven Johnson is “an old fashioned work of persuasion that ultimately aims to convince you of one thing: that popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years” (Johnson, xxii). In this book, Johnson discusses what he refers to as the sleeper curve. This notion was taken from a Woody Allen film where scientist failed to discover the nutritional value of “junk food”. Johnson believes that many of popular culture critics today are mistaken and that television shows, video games and other forms of popular culture are actually making us smarter.
In a portion of his book, Johnson discusses the significance of video games. He counters the point made by Dr. Spock that video games are a waste of time and at best only promote hand eye coordination. Johnson argues that video games improve visual intelligence as well as manual dexterity. The interactive nature of video games demands a high ability in wise decision making and complete concentration and focus. Johnson may be completely correct in his assumptions about video games. There are plenty of scientists that feel studying video gamers will prove that games do have a positive impact on cognitive abilities. “There's a lot of ignorance about gaming, but overseas research in the area is now gaining recognition at the highest level. In the US, Harvard and MIT are doing similar studies” (www.unitech.az.nz). He also argues that although video games are not making kids today less intelligent, he does not deny the benefit of reading or engaging in other activities. Johnson also mentions the argument that television is lowering our intellectual levels.
Johnson discusses how television today has become very complex. He talks about the different types of television shows and movies available today. Today in television there is a huge use of multiple story lines in one show. Viewers are forced to get to know characters and their ties to other characters and events within the shows. Viewers must also analyze plots and storylines to gain the full effect of the shows and understand the message being relayed to them. Here is where television is requiring us to think more and to “read between the lines”. DVD’s, Tivo, and On Demand can help those watching shows to gain the perspective needed to follow the story, just by allowing the viewer the opportunity to review a television show more than once. Johnson argues that viewers of shows like West Wing and Lost “no longer require training wheels, because twenty five years of increasingly complex television has honed their analytic skills” (Johnson, 77).
He also touches on the internet as an extremely valuable instrument for social networking and information retrieval. Johnson reviews the idea of intelligence testing in his book. He feels that these tests are not completely valid and do not measure fully, all areas of intelligence. He argues that many factors of intelligence are left out of these tests.
I am not sure if I can completely agree with Johnson’s arguments. Sure he has some valid ideas about the increase in complexity of television and that video games offer more than just an exercise for hand-eye coordination. But something just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe it’s the fact that Johnson argues against content being important. Content is very important in my point of view. Much of the point of popular culture is to absorb the content. You don’t learn anything unless you analyze all aspects of the form of popular culture. “A content analysis is a more quantitative approach that broadly surveys things like how many instances of violence occur on a typical evening of prime time TV viewing, or how many Asian American women appear in a day’s worth of TV commercials. This information, especially when linked to more qualitative kinds of analysis, can be very valuable in moving beyond the analyst’s somewhat subjective observations” (www.wsu.edu).
http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/text.html
http://www.unitec.ac.nz/?1A61532B-FED5-4C57-85C3-60163A08462F
In a portion of his book, Johnson discusses the significance of video games. He counters the point made by Dr. Spock that video games are a waste of time and at best only promote hand eye coordination. Johnson argues that video games improve visual intelligence as well as manual dexterity. The interactive nature of video games demands a high ability in wise decision making and complete concentration and focus. Johnson may be completely correct in his assumptions about video games. There are plenty of scientists that feel studying video gamers will prove that games do have a positive impact on cognitive abilities. “There's a lot of ignorance about gaming, but overseas research in the area is now gaining recognition at the highest level. In the US, Harvard and MIT are doing similar studies” (www.unitech.az.nz). He also argues that although video games are not making kids today less intelligent, he does not deny the benefit of reading or engaging in other activities. Johnson also mentions the argument that television is lowering our intellectual levels.
Johnson discusses how television today has become very complex. He talks about the different types of television shows and movies available today. Today in television there is a huge use of multiple story lines in one show. Viewers are forced to get to know characters and their ties to other characters and events within the shows. Viewers must also analyze plots and storylines to gain the full effect of the shows and understand the message being relayed to them. Here is where television is requiring us to think more and to “read between the lines”. DVD’s, Tivo, and On Demand can help those watching shows to gain the perspective needed to follow the story, just by allowing the viewer the opportunity to review a television show more than once. Johnson argues that viewers of shows like West Wing and Lost “no longer require training wheels, because twenty five years of increasingly complex television has honed their analytic skills” (Johnson, 77).
He also touches on the internet as an extremely valuable instrument for social networking and information retrieval. Johnson reviews the idea of intelligence testing in his book. He feels that these tests are not completely valid and do not measure fully, all areas of intelligence. He argues that many factors of intelligence are left out of these tests.
I am not sure if I can completely agree with Johnson’s arguments. Sure he has some valid ideas about the increase in complexity of television and that video games offer more than just an exercise for hand-eye coordination. But something just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe it’s the fact that Johnson argues against content being important. Content is very important in my point of view. Much of the point of popular culture is to absorb the content. You don’t learn anything unless you analyze all aspects of the form of popular culture. “A content analysis is a more quantitative approach that broadly surveys things like how many instances of violence occur on a typical evening of prime time TV viewing, or how many Asian American women appear in a day’s worth of TV commercials. This information, especially when linked to more qualitative kinds of analysis, can be very valuable in moving beyond the analyst’s somewhat subjective observations” (www.wsu.edu).
http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/text.html
http://www.unitec.ac.nz/?1A61532B-FED5-4C57-85C3-60163A08462F
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