Odd Girl Out :(

Different forms of popular culture media include:

·         The Internet

·         Cell phones

·         Television

·         Video games

·         Movies

·         Music

·         Magazines

·         Newspapers

When you think of Popular Culture media you probably don’t think too much of it and how it can affect the human behavior. We all know that it does affects us but we never really do take the time to look at how it is affecting our modern society. To be honest I know that I never really did take the time to look at the affect taking place. Until after our class read the  articles The Internet – Everything Bad is Good for You By: Steve Johnson  and  Editorial Observer: How Hip-Hop Music Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans By: Brent Staples. Now these two articles talk about two forms of very popular media culture; those two things being the Internet and music. Now these articles made me really stop and really think!  Our society is become so aggressive and mean and I believe that it’s due to the advance in our technology.

Let’s start with the Internet, where cyber bullying has increase greatly in the last decade. It has in crease with the age of technology. I think another reason cyber bullying has become so common is because studies show that only 15% of parents are “in the know” about their kids’ social networking habits, and how these behaviors can lead to cyberbullying. Grow up for me my parents had the passwords to every one of my e-mail, facebook or any type of online account. To be honest I'm pretty sure they still do have all my passwords. The point I am trying to get across is that if parents monitored their young children when they use the internet a whole lot less of this cyber bullying would be going on. Look at the chart belowe. These kids are in 4th grade through 8th grade. That is very young for this to be happening.

http://isafe.org/channels/sub.php?ch=op&sub_id=media_cyber_bullying. 

  In 2004 i-SAFE did a survey of 1,500 students grades 4-8 on the topic of cyber bullying.

Just in case you don't know what i-Safe is it is a non is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and empowering youth and others to safely, responsibly and productively use Information and Communications.



*Taken from an i-SAFE America survey of students nationwide.  

Kids today are using what should be a great advance in our technology to a whole new level by using it as means of hurting others. It is not just e-mails that people are sending. They are also sending text messages which is considered another form of cyber bullying.

         Another aspect of our media culture is movies. And some of these movies are making us meaner and show us that it is okay. I remember in 2005 Lifetime aired a movie titled Odd Girl Out. This movie was about a young girl who was bullied not only at school but also online by e-mails and instant messages. This drove her to try and commit suicide by over dosing on pills. I remember watching this with a friend and at the time I was home schooled and she went to a local public school. When we were watched this movie I remember being horrified by how the kids were acting and treating the young girl.I looked over to see my friends reaction and I didnt see one on her face at all. The fact that it didn't affect my friend at all made me wonder. We got to talking after the movie was over and she told me that those were the kinds of things going on in her school and I'm sure its going on in every school across the country. Being mean and aggressive has escalated in a social norm for our society and it is wrong!