Mini Pop Culture Analysis

Mackenzie Goss

WRT 150

9/26/11

Mini Pop Culture Analysis

            Television has majorly affected the world today. People in most countries around the world are fortunate to have televisions and basic T.V. channels. Whether we believe it or not, everyone is influenced by the T.V. shows that they watch. Most families in America have at least one television in their house and there are even more people who have televisions in every room of the house. There are a wide variety of different types of shows that can be seen on T.V. Some of these shows are not appropriate for teenagers or children. Because televisions are so easily accessible, younger children and teenagers can watch shows or channels that are not right for their age group. MTV is one of these channels that are inappropriate for children and young teenagers.

            MTV also known as Music Television is an extremely popular T.V. channel around the world today. MTV first aired on August 1, 1981 and consisted mainly of basic music videos (“MTV Launches”). It also promoted a lot of careers of new performers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and Duran Duran (“MTV Launches”). MTV was and still is a television channel geared towards teenagers and young adults of all races and cultures. Once reality shows were added to the channel, MTV became popular quickly due to the successful ratings of the shows. Reality T.V. attracted a lot of people because it is known to be very entertaining. There are countless numbers of reality shows that were on this channel but some popular ones include, The Real World, The Hills, Laguna Beach, Made, Pimp My Ride, Punked, and the newest favorite Jersey Shore.

            MTV is most definitely a growing trend throughout the world. Producers keep adding more shows that they know will attract viewers and add more seasons of  previous successful shows. Teenagers seem to can’t get enough of reality shows and always want to know what will happen next. Reality T.V. is addicting and very relatable for some people.

            This channel is geared toward teenagers and young adults of every race, gender and class. There are some problems with this channel that some people do not like. Many of the shows that are aired can be very inappropriate. A lot of the shows include swearing, alcohol, drugs, and sex. For example, the show Jersey Shore represents all of these inappropriate things. I believe that shows like Jersey Shore have a negative impact on teenagers. This show seems to give teenagers the impression that it is okay to do all of these careless and unacceptable things.  A channel geared toward teenagers should not promote unhealthy and obnoxious behavior, because teenagers will follow the actions of people on T.V.

            MTV affecting teenagers, I would have to say, goes along with Stuver and DeCurtis’ analysis of low culture. MTV is affecting teenagers in a negative way and could possibly be related to the unacceptable behavior of many teens today. Yes, the shows on MTV are entertaining, but the content of the shows are not appropriate and should be censored more carefully. Therefore, MTV has had a generally bigger negative affect on teenagers in today’s society.

Works Cited

“MTV launches.” 2011. The History Channel website. Sep 29 2011, 10:55 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtv-launches.

  

Education Needs a Digital Upgrade

            My schooling in elementary school, middle school, and high school did not prepared me for the tech requirements of college. In elementary school, I was taught the basic Microsoft Office programs. I was not taught in depth how to use all of them. I do remember having to do this typing program to help student’s type faster and not look at the keyboard while typing. In middle school I was required to take a class that made presentations on the computer using the program PowerPoint. When I was in high school my teachers did not use a lot of technology in the classroom. I did take a Microsoft office class, which helped me learn all the programs that I could use in my everyday life. This was very helpful and I learned so much! This class was an elective class but I feel like it should be mandatory because it is very important for everyone to know how to use Microsoft Office. I would recommend teachers requiring their students to submit papers online and do online work for their classes.

            I will most likely be going into the health field. I don’t know exactly what I would like do in this field yet, but I know for a fact that in the health field I will be working with computers on a daily basis. I know that I will have to learn the computer programs in a health building. I would really like to own my own practice or business one day. This may require me to design a website for my business. Whatever I decide to do, I will have to become computer literate to be successful at my job.

            I feel like I write better in a more relaxed setting. When I am writing in a more relaxed setting I tend to write better because I am not constantly worrying about how good my writing is and what grade I’m going to receive. However when I write in a more relaxed setting such as blog or emails, I always want to make sure my writing has correct grammar and makes sense because there might be a big audience who will see my posts or emails.

            If I were an English teacher I would try to keep my students as up to date with many new computer programs. I would definitely have my students keep a blog for themselves instead of a notebook to keep all of their journal entries in. I would also have them make use of websites, where they can submit their papers to me online instead of hard copies. Keeping students updated with the latest computer programs will help them in the future with new jobs.

            The tone of the article is that technology is extremely important. I agree with the thesis that technology is rapidly growing and that students need to be taught how to use computers and technology at an early age. By the time they grow up, technology will be incorporated in every job available.

Free Write 9/14/11

In today’s society we often use digital literacy. Most people throughout their normal day communicate digitally. People definitely read print and digital texts differently. Digital texts are read differently from normal print because people often use slang or shorten words. People also do not use punctuation correctly. When people communicate digitally it is hard to read the persons emotions. When we read print, we read it how it should be read and it is more proper.

There is a difference between acting as a participant of digital realm versus being active, critical, and digitally literate. People, who just act as a participant, have the social networks such as Facebook, twitter, blogs, email, and texting. They may have these things but have no idea how to use them. They also may not use these things very often. On the other hand, people who are actively using these social networks are considered digitally literate.

Anderson uses “contribution, distribution, and consumption” to describe Facebook. I do all three of these things almost every time I go on Facebook. I contribute by making statuses, writing on my friend’s walls, commenting on statuses and pictures, and liking people’s statuses and pictures. I distribute by posting statuses and pictures I want to share with others. I consume information on Facebook as well. Facebook allows people to become more social and share ideas.

Digital literacy and textual literacy are both very similar and relate to one another. Both require you to analyze, distribute, consume, and communicate information. People must be literate before they become digitally literate. 

Literacy Timeline

• ·    · Listened to people talk        
• ·      Constantly repeated words from my parents
• ·      Listened to people read me stories
• ·      Watch children shows (Barney, Blues Clues, etc.)
• ·      Shout out names of stores while I was in the car
• ·      Learned the alphabet/numbers
• ·      Learned how to spell my name through a song
• ·      Drawing pictures
• ·      Watched movies
• ·      Learned how to pronounce letters
• ·      Writing the alphabet over and over again
• ·      Put letters together to make short words
• ·      Learned how to pronounce short words that sounded similar
• ·      Read short books
• ·      Listened to my parents tell stories
• ·      Tell jokes
• ·      Listened to older friends/cousins talk, and picked up slang
• ·      Started to play sports and learned the language of those sports
• ·      Started to write short stories in elementary school
• ·      Learned how to spell bigger words
• ·      Learned cursive handwriting
• ·      Started to learn some structure to writing and learn grammar rules
• ·      Read chapter books
• ·      Read out loud to the class
• ·      Write essays
• ·      Previous teachers shaped the way I write because they taught me how to write papers