What is Popular?

Trying to define and give examples of what constitutes popular culture can be quite difficult at times. Each person has their own view on what they deem as being popular. The ‘popular’ aspects of popular culture are constantly changing, depending on the current demographic and the ways in which aspects of popular culture are accessible to today’s youth.

Social media for example has maintained a high level of popularity over the past 10 years. With the introduction of MySpace and Facebook, which really drove the start of the social media hype, there has since been no turning back. The youth of today are exposed to social media in their homes, in the classroom, and even as a major form of communication between their peers. Not only can people communicate on social media, but also they can now share ideas, picture and videos through the simple click of a button. Social media like all forms of popular culture has evolved drastically over the past 10 years and now we see it in the forms of picture and video blogging, such as Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapchat to name a few. Look on the smartphone of any teenager today, and you will be guaranteed to find several social media apps, just one click away from opening.

Just like the evolution of social media, other forms of popular culture are constantly changing. Movies overtook books as a predominant form of entertainment amongst youth, now it is the young adult literature, which is driving the popular movies of today. It is a cyclic process that changes with the requests of the consumers.

Popular culture is ever evolving, and can be defined by those things that are at a peak of their popularity and are easily accessible to the masses. The popular culture market is largely driven by what the youth of today are demanding and requesting a larger exposure to. With the developing climate of popular culture it is intriguing to see which movies, music, gaming and literature will be popular tomorrow.

Rising Popularity of Young Adult Literature

The drive of popular culture has had many benefits for the youth of today. In recent years there has been a slump in the amount of youths reading as a pastime. In an environment where video games, television and sports have taken over, the choices for entertainment are numerous and therefore activities such as reading often fall behind.

The resurgence in the popularity of young adult literature in recent years has helped with this slump in the popularity of reading. In particular the numerous young adult novels, which have been turned into blockbuster movies, are encouraging youths to pick up the books before the movie is released. Movies such as the Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver and The Maze Runner, to name a few are at the forefront of this surge in young adult literature popularity. These films have been broken into movie series and trilogies, drawn out over several years, which also adds to the longevity of the popularity of their novels. It is not only the youth of today who are getting drawn into the phenomenon. Parents and even grandparents, are picking up these novels in order to keep informed on what their children are reading. The films for these novels are also promoted at a larger target audience, which ultimately means a greater level of interest in the original novels.

Many of these novels have been around for years, so why now the increase in popularity? Films do spark interest to wider audiences, as those who struggle with reading can access and enjoy this medium. They are also promoted more frequently and on numerous forms of media, such as television, radio and posters. Novels generally do not get this type of media attention.

So through film in particular, young adult novels have seen a recent resurgence in popularity. The question is how do we keep this level of interest and popularity going in the years to come?

Social Media in the Classroom

Social media seems to be taking over the world, and I mean this in all seriousness. For me the social media craze began with MySpace and has evolved into Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat to name just a few of the most popular. There is no way that I could cut down my social media usage; each of these sites holds their own purpose in regards to my online social presence. Being a child of Gen Y, this obsession with social media seems fitting; however what I find most amazing is how these social media platforms have developed relevance to older generations, including my grandmother. My grandmother’s competency with Facebook is astounding, she can comment, and share, and like and even create her own posts. For someone who was introduced to computers and technology at quite a late stage in her life, I find this amazing. And this just show the reach social media has.

With the influence of social media being so extensive, it seems that it will become essential for educators to start utilising these social media platforms in their classrooms. The youth of today are more engrossed in social media than ever, even more so than me, and with this level of interest it seems that integration into the classroom is crucial. I for one have begun experimenting with this inclusion of social media, through online journaling and picture blogging. Students use sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr to connect with their peers, search for inspiration and document their creative endeavors.

Of course with the inclusion of social medias into the classroom, it will be essential to provide in depth cyber safety information, ensuring that students are not only engaged and connected, but safe. Social media and youth integration is an exciting platform for education and should be investigated further.

Gaming in Schools

When I was in primary school I remember the anticipation and constant battle to be the first person to finish eating their lunch so I could run straight to the school library and hire out a board game for the remainder of the lunch break. It was essential that you were the first to grab the one Hungry, Hungry Hippos game, or at the very least the Connect Four. Which games you were able to get had a large impact on your social standing for that day. Be left with Pick up Sticks or heaven forbid the Uno cards, and it was likely that you would be playing alone at lunch. Not only were board games available in the library for recreational purposes at lunch time, but they were also used in my primary school classroom as ways of learning and implementing rules, as well as developing numeracy and literacy. Monopoly was used in my grade seven class, to teach us about finances and business. Whilst games like Guess Who and Battle Ship developed our memory and strategy skills. Upon reflection, it seems that games played such a large role in my early education, yet I barely realised I was learning, I just thought games were fun. As the years progressed, the types of games used in the classroom changed. Computers were slowly introduced to the classrooms and now games could be played digitally. Now not only was I learning about finances and strategy, but I was using the computer games to teach me Spanish, and correct my mathematical skills.

Although the types of games being played by students in classrooms now have changed dramatically, the idea remains the same. Learning through games is fun and beneficial. Much of the learning through gaming is now happening online through computer games. These games are often collaborative in nature, which provides students with connections with people, at times on the other side of the world. These connections develop collaborative learning and teamwork skills, which can be used in the classroom setting and everyday life. Popular computer games such as Halo, Tomb Raider and Call of Duty, all require players to develop fine motor skills, higher order thinking, quick reaction time, strategic thinking and problem solving to name a few. Not to mention the benefits of staying up to date with constantly changing technologies. These computer games are teaching our kids to be collaborative, strategic, and problem solving citizens. Is this not what we desire for our next generation of workers and thinkers?

While all aspects of learning are important, including physical and academic, lets not forget the benefits of play, regardless the age of the player and type of game.

The Banning of Knowledge

In recent years there has been a huge push to encourage and keep children reading. With the increase in accessibility to video games and social media, the youth of today are finding other ways to keep themselves entertained and focusing less on libraries and traditional books. Now I am in no way saying that social media and video games do not have their own benefits or ways of teaching children, however I feel as if the tradition of sitting down with a good book and getting lost in the world of words may be slowly becoming a thing of the past for many of todays youth.

Taking this into consideration it baffles me that now we seem to be constantly combatting libraries or schools that wish to ban certain young adult books!

The following website provides a comprehensive list of young adult novels that have at one point or another been banned by schools and libraries.

http://popcrush.com/young-adult-banned-books/

Now whilst it is understandable that not all schools wish to use certain young adult books in their curriculum, it is hard to believe that they are being banned for general reading purposes. I even know of schools that have not only excluded certain books from their curriculum and libraries, but have also banned students from bringing these books to school for them to read during their lunch breaks! This raises a few problems for me. First of all, I personally believe that parents should have the ultimate say on what their children are exposed to, whether this is television, books, movies etc. If a school is contradicting the parent’s decisions, what message is this sending our kids?

Secondly, libraries have the privilege of being able to provide knowledge, not censor knowledge. If information is kept from the public due to libraries sorting it first, can we therefore say that libraries are truly a place to gather all types of knowledge? While some of these young adult novels do have challenging themes within them, they are all written because the youth of today are able to relate with them in some way or another. It is one thing for a parent or a teacher to say that they do not wish for their students to be exposed to the issues raised within some of these novels, but the reality is that they already are! When students gather knowledge about challenging youth issues from books, they develop an awareness and understanding of the real world and can grow into a well-informed and active citizen. Schools in particular have an amazing ability to provide students with knowledge and expose them to issues in a safe and supportive environment, where questions can be answered.

Mass provides a list of 10 young adult books which have been banned by schools and libraries in recent times. Some of the more popular books on the list included The Giver, Looking for Alaska, the Gossip Girl series, and of particular interest The Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins. The Hunger Games series has been challenged and banned on several occasions by different schools and libraries due to the use of strong violence and anti family themes. In contradiction to these bans in educational settings Dail and Giles go into considerable detail when discussing the positive impact of The Hunger Games in an educational setting. They believe that “Collin’s novel raises many questions about society and our reality television culture, and when implemented purposefully in the classroom, can lead students to critically examine the ways in which reality television shows are mediated experiences for the participants and the viewers” (2012).

When considering the educational benefits and potential for learning when reading these young adult novels, is it perhaps more important to educate our youth on these issues, rather than banning the novels which act as vessel for learning.

References

Dail, J., & Giles, T. (2012), The Hunger Games and Little Brother Come to Life of Voice Thread: Helping Students Respond Visually to Young Adult Literature. The ALAN Review, 6-11.

Mass, E. (2014). 10 Young Adult Books That Have Been Banned. http://popcrush.com/young-adult-banned-books

Commercialising Popular Culture

Everywhere I look I see traces of popular culture. From the branding on foods, to the types of toys children are playing with, and even the way we dress; popular culture is continually seeping into our everyday lives to a great extent through commercialisation. We get so caught up in the hype relating to TV, movie and book releases that often without realising the extent, they merge into our own lives.

I remember waiting for the last episode of the latest season of Games of Thrones to be released. I was completely consumed by waiting for its release. My life was put on hold, I raced home from work, didn’t stop to prepare dinner, didn’t have a shower or get changed out of my work uniform, I was also on a total social media ban the entire day, until I was able to get home and watch it. So how can a simple TV show take over a functioning adults life to this extent?

Kids also get caught up in the popular culture hype, understandably they want to be just like their favourite movie star heroes; they dress like them, eat like them and essentially embody them due to the availability of endless toys and props. Take the Marvel Avengers franchise, or Disney’s Frozen for example; the amount of licensed material available can seep into every aspect of a child’s life. They sleep in bedding covered with their favourite characters, they eat out of dishes branded with the symbols of the show, and they can even dress in costumes, which fully embody the characters in the show. From a young age we are teaching children (whether consciously or not) that popular culture holds an important place in our lives.

Not only does this expanse of popular culture and branding of everyday products affect children, but also adults are becoming increasingly drawn into movie, and music brands due to the commercialisation of popular culture. It is not just cartoon franchises placing their branding on clothes, foods and toys; but movie and music stars are now not only the faces of beauty, fashion and food products, but they are also now creating their own. Instead of just admiring your idols, you can be dressed like them, eat like them, smell like them and lose weight the way that they do! The reaches of popular culture are stretching into every aspect of our lives. This was made especially evident to me during the recent Brisbane Festival and in particular Riverfire. During this fireworks and light spectacular over the Brisbane river popular culture had taken over. The music accompanying the show not only included the latest hits from the past few years, but also the theme music from several popular movies and television shows including Game of Thrones. The accompanying music to the finale was the unmistakable Star Wars theme song. A clear promotion of the latest movie due for release this year and an attempt to grab the attention of those drawn into the popular culture world of Star Wars.

Popular culture is everywhere; it is evident in all aspects of our lives from entertainment, to food and clothing. With such an commercialisation of popular culture, we need to ask ourselves whether we fight it or embrace it? I personally think I have no choice but to embrace it, especially with my obsession with Game of Thrones and all!