The Popular Culture - Essay Example

The popular culture Introduction The video game culture or subculture is a form of new media subculture that has been influenced by video games. As computer and video games have increased exponentially in popularity over time, they have had a significant influence upon popular culture. This forms of entertainment has spawned many fads. Video game culture has evolved in time to emerge as one of the most superior forms of the popular culture. This is particularly seen to be in close connectivity with the internet culture. It is established that in the recent times that the impact of computer and video games can be seen in politics, television, popular music, film as well as the social media platforms. Video games has opened a new culture in the world of entertainment leading to the emergence of a new form of popular culture. It is recorded that the initial games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. Some of the earliest examples of video games the Cathode ray tube Amusement Device that was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The two designers were deeply inspired by radar display tech that was made up of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen. While there has been a great element of changes leading to ink split on video game culture, the actual definition of the term is often treated as common sense to many people. The unraveling of the discourses surrounding video game culture offers room for people to envisioned in the power dynamics involved in attributing certain characteristics to it, as well as naming it. This approach has implications for how video games are studied as well as how they are interlinked with how culture is studied more broadly. By critically examining how video game culture has been defined in both press and academic articles, this paper seeks to elaborate how this cultural aspect has emerged to be considered on the most advanced forms of the popular culture. The revolution of the video game culture According to Tom Bissell in Extra Lives: Why video games matter, the rise of video in the current generation has resulted to the emergence of a new form of popular culture. He admits his great love and passion for the games. It is recorded that millions of adults all over the world, spend several hours every week playing video games leading to the growth of the industry. It is estimated that the industry is likely to outdo the film industry in Hollywood. However, the wider culture seems to regard video games as at best well designed if mindless entertainment. The advent of video games led into the innovation of media technology that created a room for consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content (Bissell, 314-316). Bissell argues that current trend on the rise of video gaming has opened a new chapter. He believes that video gaming can be improved to in order to increase the scope and attract many people in it. The book offers a detailed defense of this form of assailed as well as misunderstood form of art. He establishes a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and just as often, frustrate people who engage in it. The game has received different forms of reaction from diverse users all over the world. There are a number of artists who have advocated for their advancement of video games through their personal contributions. Some of the notable artists who have taken part in the video game designs include Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski and Peter Molyneux. Bissell’s further makes an entry into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions. Bissell records that in just a few decades, video games have become increasingly complex and sophisticated making the companies that produce them to be among the most profitable in the entertainment industry. Yet it is reported that only few outside this world have thought deeply about how these games work, why they are so appealing and finally what they are capable of artistically. He Blends memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage thus presenting the book as an indication of a milestone work about what might be the dominant popular art form of our time. Advancement of the video game culture has been witnessed through online gaming that has drastically increased the scope as well as the size of the gaming culture. Online gaming has facilitated the rapid expansion of the video games as many people across the globe can access the games and be able to interact with other players’ thus sharing key information and ideas. The role of Social media to the advancement of the popular culture. According to Malcom Dowell, the use of social media as communications channels is a better weapon towards the relaying of information and should not be used as power structures. He alludes to the fact that the hierarchy of order that produced the civil rights movement may have been aided by social media but it would have happen without it, too. He gives an example that if countries like China is to become a democratic state in future, it will not be because the Westerners pestered Beijing with Tweets of their injustices. However, it will be the result of an organization of citizens’ rally together and stand for their rights. Or worse, have to fight for them. It is an agreed fact that Facebook messages may be the carrier pigeons, but carrier pigeons don’t win wars. This quickly confirms that the use of social media as a means of relaying information to the masses may not achieve mush in terms advocating for the human rights. Gladwell asserts that claims of Twitter’s role in various uprisings in developing countries like those of Arabic nations have been largely taken out of context. He argues that Twitter had scant internal significance in Moldova, a country where very few Twitter accounts exist. He cites the works of other authors such as Anne Applebaum who fronted the view that the protests that were uprising in those countries may well have been a bit of stage-craft cooked up by the government (Gladwell, 350-353). Social media is a form of communication that has contributed to the spread of the popular culture. Gladwell indicates that social change and protest requires huge sacrifice and understandably one only engages in such sacrifice for one’s close friends. His conclusions generally resonate with several researches on the view of social capital. The use of social media has created a number of divergent reactions from various parts of the world in term of the spread of information and ideas. In the use of Twitter in the dissemination of information, one can only be able to transfer such data to anonymous individuals and other acquaintances as opposed to people with whom they have adhesive ties to. For this reason social networking falls short of old fashioned social protest in making large changes. This clearly confirms the fact that the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter cannot create the much needed social change in the world. Work Cited Bissell, Tom. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2010. Print. Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. London [etc.: Penguin Books, 2005. Print. Read More