My
quote is 'Modern-day pop culture is a mass culture, spread widely through the
mass media and mass communications technologies. Pop culture would not have
become so widespread without the partnership that it has always had with the
mass media.'- Danesi, M. Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives. Lanham,
USA: Rowman and Littlefield.
This
essay is discussing the negative effect of mass media in society to people.
Firstly, what is culture? The word culture suggests ‘a particular way of life,
whether of a people, a period or a group.’ It can also refer to ‘the works and
practices of intellectual and especially artistic activities.’ Culture plays an
important part in how human societies communicate with each other. ‘An obvious
starting point in any attempt to define popular culture is to say that popular
culture is simply culture which is widely favored or well-liked by many
people.’
The
Internet provides us with infinite amounts of information, drastically impact
our mind. Our screen always filled with overlapping windows, we follow them,
chase them and discuss them. An hour passed in a flash, but in the end, we
cannot remember any of the information. This world has a dizzy feeling, it is
colourful but be amazed at the same time. The Internet makes the world smaller;
we can know the instant news quickly. The mass media has been deeply combined
with the whole society, which has become an important public opinion carrier,
the carrier of information, the carrier of culture and a major cultural existence.
The mass media quickly spread, wide coverage, strong penetrability, and for the
decision of the government publicity, social ethics construction and for the
people's values and way of life of remodeling have not underestimated the
influence.
In
all the impact of various media, the most controversial topic is the Internet
Network to the teenager. Mass media is a ‘double-edged sword.' Teens outside
the world are full of curiosity, eager to get new knowledge, understanding of
new information, becoming a member of the social identity, associate with
others and express their thoughts and feelings. So they became the most
enthusiastic readers of modern mass media because it is the way they think of
themselves. For example, people try to seek their identity by changing the look
of themselves to be like supermodels in the television or magazine. Mass media
can also provide negative feelings and information. For example, violence which
can lead to some illegal activities. Research by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann,
Leonard Eron, and others starting in the 1980s found that children who watched
many hours of violence on television when they were in elementary school tended
to show higher levels of aggressive behavior when they became teenagers. The
report and a follow-up report in 1982 by the National Institute of Mental
Health identified these major effects of seeing violence on television:
-Children
may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
-Children
may be more fearful of the world around them.
-Children
may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward other.
Therefore
it is important to have a self-maintaining mind, keep a cool head,
Not
only when we were dealing with violence on media but also some other negative
information like fake news and the spread of misinformation, never blindly
follow the media.
Patricia
Greenfield says‘’ Most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time
for reflection, analysis, or imagination,’’. People receive tons of
information, the media is more and more cater to readers, so that people can
only read what they want to know, but they forget to stop and think.
"Critical thinking can be accelerated multifold by the right
technology." On the other hand, "The technology distraction level is
accelerating to the point where thinking deeply is difficult. We are
overwhelmed by a constant barrage of devices and tasks." Worse: "We
increasingly suffer from the Google syndrome. People accept what they read and
believe what they see online is fact when it is not." By Michael Bugeja,
director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State
University of Science and Technology. In today’s Information Age, all kinds of
high-tech products in our life. As people more and more rely on their
electronic devices to solve problems, it makes them have difficulty concentrating,
memory loss and the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely
deteriorate. "Reading enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a
way that visual media such as video games and television do not,"
Greenfield explains. "It develops imagination, induction, reflection, and
critical thinking, as well as vocabulary." So now, reading is a
prerequisite for success in life. It is not the best opinion for people to
solve a problem, but it can make us think, constructs rich self’s inner worlds and
the culture life. The articles from media are fragmentation reading; it is hard
to learn and think deeply. There are many articles on media but most of them
people just give a hurried and cursory glance, because the reader is more and
more impatient. There are many authors, but just a few can be remembered. Look
back in times when we read a book; some fantastic article remains fresh in the
memory.
Bibliography:
Danesi, M. Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives. Lanham, USA: Rowman and Littlefield.
Giroux, H. A. (2000), impure acts: The practical politics of cultural studies, New York
Anderson, C.A., Ihori, Nobuko, Bushman, B.J., Rothstein, H.R., Shibuya, A., Swing, E.L., Sakamoto, A., & Saleem, M. (2010). Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review
Samuel Greengard, https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/7/32082-are-we-losing-our-ability-to-think-critically/fulltext
No comments:
Post a Comment