Module 2 Readings

I found this weeks readings to be quite interesting. As a younger person I never really think about my consequences for what I post online whether it be a picture, a status or a shared news article. When reading chapter 3 of Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture, Sternheimer says that we should be more aware of what is happening online and to be cautious of what we are posting because you never know who it may offend. Things such as cyberbullying  happen every day and I believe not everyone really realizes that everyone on the internet are actual people too. The problem with cyberbullying is that one person can think that it is all a joke and they do not really mean the things that they are saying while the other person may find it extremely hurtful and take it very seriously. Sternheimer goes into talking about how these things may lead to a person committing suicide such as the cases we have seen with Tyler, Megan, Amanda, Phoebe, and Jamey all who committed suicide because of being bullied online. I remember very specifically the Jamey case and when it was all happening I felt hurt because I knew what mean things could be said through the internet. He was a kid that was trying to stand up to the people who were bullying him and not let it bother him but the pain became too much as kids still bullied him even when he made videos of how he would not stand being bullied any longer. To think that these poor kids felt as though there was no other way out is so tragic because we as a society could have prevented it with being more aware of what is going on through the internet. Many times it is not even children that are the ones being harassed as it happens with adults as well which is even more reason to try and fix the situation.

In chapter four of Sternheimer’s text book she also looks into how or even if the media is “dumbing down Americans.” I think there are many different ways to looks at this as true but not always at the same time. It is all about looking at the different ways that people are actually using popular culture to figure out if it really is helping or hurting this society. When thinking about television we see that there are plenty of news channels telling us things about what is happening all around the world which I think we could all agree is a good use of television. Although, many of the news programs only show what they want you to see and what they think is going to be good television to get as many viewers as possible. When reading Out of the mainstream: Sexual minorities and the mass media, Gross says, “Decisions about which events are newsworthy and about how to present them are heavily influenced by considerations of dramatic form and content (e.g. conflict and resolution) that are drawn from fictional archetypes.” This quote could not be any more realistic. These news programs are still all about the money and they do not get as much money with non-interesting stories.

Something else that we must worry about with any form of media that may be hurting children’s learning outcomes. With television, the internet and their smartphones it is almost impossible to have a child sit down and do their homework without any distractions. The new smartphone era is truly hurting the learning outcome for children today because they now have a new way of communication. They have texting language which is much different than our normal language, they use abbreviations for everything and when they do try to spell something the right way and get it wrong they do not even notice because they have spell check there to save the day.

So when we ask the question of, is media really dumbing down America? I think it is safe to say that it most certainly is. The children today are so distracted by social media or television that they do not find it important to learn things. They have the mindset of if they do not know the answer to something, google does. It is truly sad to think that most of the things that children learn today are from reality television and fake news articles that they read on Facebook.