In order to expand my Pop Culture bubble, I looked up several blogs about various aspects of Pop Culture. These are in the areas of TV, Gaming, Microblogging, Movies and Books, and Music.
The first interesting blog I found relating to television's effects and usefulness to the world was written by Karen Sternheimer. It is entitled "TV's role in Social Cohesion".
This is a competently written blog about social cohesion. It talks about humans as social creatures and how they need to feel like part of a larger community. She talks about the work of Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz and how they showed how major TV events are indicators of "mechanical solidarity", creating a sense of community with others nationally and globally. The idea is that today we are less likely to feel that sense of community based on watching the same events on TV. This is due to the countless other entertainment and news sources we have today.
Karen Sternheimer is a competent writer and sociologist at the University of Southern California. She is the author of several books on Pop Culture. There does not seem to be any ulterior motive for her writings and she's not selling anything. I find her views interesting because they connect with the basic state of humanity, that is, the need to feel connected.
Epic Greenman is attempting to convince the RPG gamer to buy Xenoblade, even though it will require a modification to the Wii that some people may not want to do. Epic puts forth several convincing arguments, so many that myself, not a gamer, is seriously inclined to get a Wii and download Xenoblade. Epic uses many details in his discussions that have excellent merit: "rather than the typical RPG system where losing results in a Game Over, Xenoblade has a checkpoint system similar to an action game or shooter. This allows for even regular enemies to pose a serious threat and boss battles to take actual strategy".
Finally, Epic offers to help the gamer perform the needed mods to their equipment. Now if that isn't true blue gamer I don't know what is! If I get into gaming I would definitely follow Epics blogs because he has the knowledge that only intense gamers would have and he shares it with enthusiasm.
Microblogging refers to everything from text messaging to Twitter. Sidneyeve Matrix has a gamers name for sure, but don't let that fool you. She proves that she has the ability to present hard data as well as any analyst. Her blog, THE TWITTER NICHE: MILLENNIAL MICROBLOGGING makes an interesting point that Twitter has not become as highly used on college campus as one might expect. She cites several studies that seem to show that only a quarter of students on her campus use Twitter. As I look at the charts she shows, I see that the statistic she displays shows an average Facebook user is an unbelievable 38 years old, but the highest number of users is as I would expect, 18-25 year olds at 29%.
It seems that Sidneyeve's focus is on whether college campuses should invest in more infrastructure to reach students on Twitter. She believes the best way is to use a "cross-channel" messaging combo that includes all the major technologies. Sidneyeve's qualifications are impressive as she is a Queen's National Scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of media and Film at Queen's University. She sounds highly technical and analytical so if I need hard facts I would look her up.
In my Movies and Books section, Bill White posts his opinion on "Harry Potter's Cultural Impact".
His premise is that no other movie/book series has had the cultural impact of Harry Potter. It is basically a personal opinion based on how much he loves the Harry Potter books and movies. He compares this series to the Hardy Boys books he read as a kid and claims that Harry Potter is much more imaginative. He claims that a significant number of children learned the "joy of reading" because of J.K. Rowlings books.
Bill White cites no data for these claims, but he puts it forth as a personal opinion, inviting other's opinions as well. I think his opinion is useful in getting another viewpoint because he is passionate about the subject and has read many books that a typical kid might read.
I think we are happy that there continues to be new entertainment and new music. In this blog called:
"Music isn't what it used to be", Kelly Spieker takes the typical "modern music isn't what it used to be" approach. Summarizing various music types over the decades seems to satisfy the belief that musicians and songwriters were more talented then but not now. This is a seriously brain-dead approach to music and it ignores the obvious concept that with every new music revolution there are those nostalgic types that can't accept anything new. Kelly just seems to be one in a long line of such non-accepters. I wouldn't choose to follow this blog because it doesn't offer anything new and it's not supported with any real argument.
In reality, there have always been songs that lack inspiration or craftsmanship, if you will. Looking over the top, the Beatles were excellent musicians and songwriters. Their music was and still is awesome. However, there is a lot of music appearing now that is revolutionary.
I hope you enjoyed my Pop Culture Blog Analysis
