IBM vs Mac (old news but relevant)... The struggle for dominance!

Because this class has a primary focus on popular culture I can only assume that owning a computer is popular culture. It may have become ubiquitous in modern society to actually own one. This was not always the case. In the late 1970’s and early 80’s there was a huge technological war and computers were not available, at least to my knowledge, in abundance like they are today (same thing can be said about cell phones). By war I mean economical and financial war, nothing like the violence I have explained about in the last two or three blog things I’ve written. Pirates of the Silicon Valley was a movie directed by Martyn Burke displayed this re-enactment of the war on the big screen in 1999. This film touched on the experimentation and race to be the first company between IBM (now Microsoft) and Apple Macintosh (now Mac) to have the first computer on the market. What is most amazing about this whole “war” was the fact that both company founders Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, knew that this in fact would be the future of society. This in fact would present to the public the ideal popular culture. In as I sit here and type on this computer I realize that my life is so much easier than that of my parents. The war that I speak about was not fully realized by society until 1984 when Steve Jobs created the commercial based off of George Orwell’s novel “1984”. There is a link to the youtube version below. What makes this commercial so significant and put Apple Macintosh on the market and a healthy competitor was the fact that it explained to the public that the IBM was geared towards a more conservative generation, a safe way of putting it. Whereas the Apple Macintosh was the down to earth, more savvy, easy to use at home operating system. If you wanted a system this was it. The point I’m trying to make here is that anything can become main stream so long as the society of which it is introduced accepts it and lets it flourish. Popular culture is simply not black and white, yes or no, it is a constantly evolving way of life.

“1984” commercial for Apple Macintosh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

Inglourious Basterds... reality??? I think not!

Upon examining the subject of popular culture and violence focus your attention towards the modern film industry. Movies are inaccurate reflections of history in some senses. An example of this would be recreations of history such as the movie, Pearl Harbor, The Patriot, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan and Inglourious Basterds. Each of these movies share certain aspects of truth in terms of a historical sense but pretty much depict a fantasy world. These movies are also apart of popular culture. I can’t remember if I’ve defined popular culture. If I didn’t well I am attempting at my definition and that is culture that encompasses everything that is main stream. With that out of the way returning back to the focus on movies, each of the movies I listed all have one thing in common. Violence. Pearl Harbor, though a romantic fight against the odds type of story depicted a pretty graphic re-telling of the men and women who died in the destruction of the ships posted in the harbour. The Patriot with its graphic Mel Gibson duel tomahawk wielding battle also depicting his sons murdering, oops I mean in war is call engaging hostile enemies, red coats. How about the savagery of the full-scale wars in Braveheart or the mighty re-telling and graphic yet visually appeasing of the landing on Normandy Beach on D-day. Finally, the complete bone-chilling, fantasy, extremely violent re-creation of a group of men hell bent on visciously murdering Nazi’s behind enemy lines in Inglourious Basterds. Looking at each of these movies and then comparing it to video games or songs which are more violent? Obviously again this is all based on popular culture being the cause of violence but the medium again has shifted. As people begin to become decensitized to these violent main stream productions so too will the violence from our youth.

Popular Culture leads to Violence in youth!

In my last entry I was talking about how video games are not the leading cause of teenage violence. So what then would be considered the cause to this violence? Crime rates among youth in Victoria B.C. according to the text “A User’s Guide to Popular Culture” are extremely high. Granted that in the present, 2010, they are not as high as they were in 2000. The reason for this is that there are more programs available after school, within school, before school to help those youth who are finding it difficult to concentrate in school. When youth cannot concentrate they get frustrated, when they get frustrated they get angry, and finally when their angry not always but the majority of the time this leads to violence. This all ties in with popular culture. If video games are considered popular culture and if people are blaming video games for the violence in youth today, then is it not possible that it is in fact Popular Culture that could be the cause of this frustration? Take for instance music. There are many forms of music available now and they are drastically different from conventional folk music. Music such as “Bodies...” by Disturbed or Emotional music, more commonly referred to as “emo” music that more often than not depicts women as the heart breaker which in turn sends men into madness. Sometimes this popular music can really affect someone mentally. If we’re talking about popular music then popular culture encompasses popular music, then it’s safe to say that video games are not the cause of teenage violence, but Popular Culture.

Video games lead to teenage violence? Since when!?

Lately I’ve come across many articles on the internet that suggests that video games are the leading cause of teenage violence in the modern world. I believe that these claims are unsubstantiated. Well, first before I explain my point of view on teenage violence I suppose we could look at why critics and parents of victims from teenage violence would tend to believe that video games are the cause. The first and most notable example and the one that has spread the most fear was the sensationalized shooting massacre of columbine. Sensationalized in such a way that once the media took hold of it they tried to say that due to the fact that the shooter’s, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who were both claimed to have enjoyed the bloody bath of the game Doom, that they enacted their video game fantasy on their peers. Of course there were other theories about why they did it, but that was the easiest explanation and the one that sold the fastest. That year sales in video game merchandise and other products related to video game products saw a decline. The issue here was the fact that people were afraid of other events like this would happen again. People began to believe the media. I mean come on people! The media tends to take events and mould them so that the story is worth selling. Everyone is so keen on putting blame somewhere else that they fail to blame themselves. I believe that video games are not the cause of teenage violence! Why? Well it’s simple really and I’m sure you’ll all agree that youth are either given too much freedom (to do as they please) or not given enough freedom (pregnancies, crime rates rampant when given the freedom). This all of course ties into the care and love the parents give to their children. More often than not, and I’ve seen it first hand, those children that are neglected or smothered are, I believe anyway, at higher risk of performing immoral acts or crime.

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Hi family/friends and whoever else reads this!

My blog will see an increase in posts over the next 13 or so weeks due to an online class I'm enrolled in that is requiring me to post a blog about things I'm learning in class or opinions I've developed on certain things. Feel free to be enlightened or just ignore my blabbering, if you'd like to comment on things go right ahead no one is right or wrong! I'll enjoy the criticism laugh, cry, hurl, whatever hahah! Without further ado, here are my posts!