Is Pop Culture Good For You?

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Sorry for the inconvenience. EBlogger 2: Is Pop Culture Good For You

Most certainly there is an indefinite answer to this question, meaning given to certain extents of the present, past, and future there are multiple ways you can respond to this question. The simplistic meaning beyond pop culture resonates between a shared point, objective, or thought, a shared insight of few or many individuals. What may classify this ‘pop culture’ to be dead or disintegrated from modern society is evolution. Evolution from the continuous change of technology, economics, and popular demand. Phil Miller, a long-time researcher on the basis and complexities of  pop culture, presents a TED talk’s speaking in further detail. Miller states, “It's a wave that washes over society, and then withdraws quickly. But it leaves a massive public legacy behind it (TED 2015). His point is, social media being a vast and substantial platform used for the distribution of different ideas can affect anyone who draws any attention to it whether or not they participate in it or not. As simple as living in the era of that time classifies as living in the pop cultured fashion. In cases where that idea can become viral such as the ice-water bucket challenge for example, from famous to ordinary people daring others to donate and raise awareness to charities, by dowsing their bodies with freezing cold water, would slowly deplete its fame within a given time frame. Yet although not in high rise (demand) it continues to be a legendary movement in time, an era of the evolution of social media, of pop culture. With this we go back to the original question. Is it really considered “dead” or is it altered? Could it be evolutionized as well? 

The article Watching TV Makes You Smarter written by Steven Johnson discussed the social debate between what should and should not be broadcasted towards specific age groups. In the article a phrase reads, “We absorb stories, but we second guess games (Johnson), specifically stating that society as a whole takes a hold to stories, morphed ideas, more seriously than games, which are initially sometimes intentionally portrayed as not to be taken seriously.In the context of pop culture lets say these “stories” are historical events such as World War 2 for example, and a classified “game” can be Battleship. Both resemble war yet one is obviously without a doubt more serious and taken with a  stern account, whereas battleship isn't as important although it is a loved and never-forgotten game to many. With this example and many others to mention we instantly draw the line between entertainment and informational messages that are brought to us on a day to day basis, displayed on social media, to our TV screens, even through physical communication to family or friends. Pop culture is not dead, it is passively being in use without us even noticing. Indeed we can look back ten, twenty, thirty years  from now and agree the concept was followed more literally, yet looking now and even into the future it is still being used. As long as our shared opinions, beliefs, ideas etc are being dispersed within the social form we call the internet, pop culture lives on.

Works Cited:

TED. (2015, Feb 5). Phil Miller:Pop Culture Is Dead [video file]. Retrived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkDYlQhx0wY 

Johnson, S. J. (n.d.). Watching Tv Makes You Smarter. N/a. Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5dfe7e0f40156/2062119?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1632128400000&X-Blackboard-Signature=jsZRWvcQfT9MldpZ48MDWE2lUk1zUzpx2VqZLsPxn78%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=303591&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Watching%2520TV%2520Makes%2520You%2520Smarter.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210920T030000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PL5SJBSTP6%2F20210920%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=0168ab7736b67be5fbb7dc552d3c5cf7f5c4c95a6c2ac6d661ac8dffd5e3a0ff