A Breeze through Popular Culture Often parents and adults say that we teenagers text too often, play video games for vast hours, and that we watch unworthy fake news programs. In addition they say that all this diminishes our intelligence, however this is not one hundred percent true. Furthermore, I will acknowledge that text speak, video games, and fake news are instead changing the way people think in a positive manner. Although this is not a traditional way of gaining knowledge, it is still a growth that people who think in a conservative way have to accept. Text speak, video games and fakes news, have created a different way of learning, enhanced our communication skills, and they have increased our imagination. An examination of 2B or Not 2B by author David Crystal, Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by author Tom Bissell, and The Good, the Bad, and The Daily Show by author Jason Zinser will reveal to us how text speak, video games, and fakes news also result in positive outcomes. Text speak, video gaming, and fake news have revolutionized the way we learn. David Crystal, well known for his work in English language studies and linguistics, says in his essay 2B or Not 2B that text speak is not something alien to us, the way we use text speak is what is different. It is important that we teenagers establish to parents, adults, and teachers that we are not destroying the English language neither adapting poor writing habits by abbreviating words. I have made the conclusion that adults think abbreviations develop poor writing habits because they think we will forget how to use correct syntax and grammar, however, “there are an extraordinary number of ways in which people play with language creating riddles, solving crosswords, playing Scrabble . . . Professional writers do the same providing catchy copy for advertising slogans, thinking up puns in newspapers headlines . . . Children quickly learn that one of the most enjoyable things you can do with language is to play with its sounds, grammar, and spelling.” (Crystal) In order to be able to do all the above you have to have a high understanding of the English language in order to manipulate it to the best of your convenience. If you are able to use text speak in its various forms in order to get your statement across that simply means that you are learning or better yet have or are in transition from learning to mastering the ways of the English language. Also, one of the most popular games on the market, Call of Duty Black Ops, gives you the option of doing missions, in which you learn the history of the United States. When doing these missions you encounter the Bays of Pigs, you get to talk to John F. Kennedy, and the games teach and use code encryption, something that is not common to learn outside of the game. One of the mothers I now had told me that her child related the class topic to the game stating that what the teacher had said was not all correct because the teacher had sugar coated the historical fact, but never did the teacher state the actual fact. Therefore, I believe that it was not the teacher who taught the child the actual fact but the game Call of Duty Black Ops who did. In addition, Jason Zinser author of The Good, the Bad, and The Daily Show and a Ph.D. in philosophy, depicts the good and bad of fake news. Although from reading the article you have virtues outweighing the vices of fake news. When watching fake news as Jason Zinser calls shows like The Daily Show, he states that, “In a 2004 National Annenberg Election Study found that Daily Show viewers could correctly answer more questions about the Presidential candidates than viewers of national news or newspaper readers.” (Zinser) Is it because fake news provides such information? Or does one need background information in order to understand the fake news? After watching an episode of The Daily Show I was aware that I needed suffice amount of background information in order to catch on to the silly references that John Stuart makes (protagonist of The Daily Show). So above all meaning, there is this background knowledge required when you watch fake news shows in the first place. In other words you have to acquire such knowledge in order to be able to watch fake news. Hence this is why I believe that fake news, video games, and text speak have sophisticated the way of learning.
Text speak has improved the way we communicate with one another. When one is communicating either by paper or by short message services (or SMS) we tend to use abbreviations. When, “Text communicated by pagers were replaced by text messages, at first [text messages were] only 20 characters in length.”(Crystal) Imagine writing what you want to say only using twenty words it must have been difficult, but thanks to abbreviations and text speak they were able to get their message across. Nowadays a cell phone has an average of 160 characters in length. Some cell phones let you write as many characters as you want and they divide the whole text message into parts of 160 characters. Text speak and abbreviations have become more like everyday words. In addition, “English has had abbreviated words since it began to be written down. Words such as exam, vet, fridge, cox, and bus are so familiar that they have effectively become new words.” (Crystal) Therefore, we can see that text speak has always facilitated and contributed to the English language. New media increases our imagination which has been contributed by text speak, video games, and fake news. All which require us to think at a sophisticated level. Texting requires us to think of ways to use the English language how it best benefits us, video gaming “contain[s] more than most gamers can ever hope to see, and the person deciding where to point the camera is, in many cases is you.”(Bissell) It has come to my understanding that gamers rather use their own imagination and design their own path in a game rather than to follow directions or a script. Fake news requires us to use our imagination in order to understand their parody. Yes there are other things that might enhance our imagination, but they are not used as often as these popular ways of culture that we have adapted over the last century. By enhancing our imagination we are able to think critically. In summary, us teenagers have to make it clear to adults that text speak does not diminish our English language neither is it only limited to the 21th century and teenagers, video games do not fry our brains, and that fake news do not misinform us. On the contrary, they enhance the way we learn, they facilitate the way we communicate, and increase our imagination. It is important for teachers, adults, and parents to understand the value of text speak, video gaming, and fake news, in order for them to change their views toward this popular culture.