Pop culture has both a positive and negative effect on society because the way it influences people is different for everyone. People who obsess over singers and movie stars can struggle with the way mass media portrays beauty standards through these celebrities. Pop culture can also, however, have positive impacts on society. It brings art forms like film and music into the mainstream conciseness. Some people take issue and are critical of reality television, calling it staged and not tasteful. While reality T.V. is most certainly staged, we live in a world where reality T.V. is basically the new family sitcom. “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” follows a story arch every episode with consistent characters, and as long as we can pretend it’s real, it can be entertaining. Even actual family sitcoms like “Modern Family” are filmed in a hand-held reality T.V. style. Pop culture, or the culture of whatever is popular, constantly changes and shapes the way we think as a society. I think everyone pays attention to the specific areas of pop culture that interest them.  The areas of pop culture that fascinate me the most are celebrities, especially the self-made celebrities who have seemingly slipped into fame without a talent such as singing, acting, or playing a sport. In this class I would like to learn more about the impacts of pop culture and what is considered pop culture and what is not.

I think a clever title could be “What’s Poppin’?” since we’ll be talking about pop culture and current events.