Popular culture has a tremendous effect on our everyday lives for years and has had a significant change on everyone in some type of way. It is heavily influenced by technology. In some form of way technology has allowed people to gain more knowledge on general topics. “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, and “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, both discuss how technology has had a huge impact on the way our modern day society works. Crystal argues the benefits that come with texting. He explains that although in many ways texting has tainted the English language but at the same time it allows people to have better understandings as well. He beliefs it is the evolution of language. Johnson argues that television is not making us dumb but in fact is actually healthy for our brains. He explains throughout his essay that television enhances our cognitive faculties, making us more intelligent. Both essays show how pop culture, being technology, can have positive effects on people which are what ties these two articles together.
Pop culture is very broad …show more content…
When coming to their conclusion they both had background information to help support their main topic. Crystal explains how for many years now people have been using abbreviations for different reason with no criticism. He states, “Abbreviations were used as a natural, intuitive response to a technological problem…Texters simply transferred (and then embellished) what they had encouraged in other settings.” (341) He goes on to explain how society has made texting to what it is today and made it very usefully. Like Crystal compares the different way in which texting has changed over the years; Johnson does as well. He explains how different television shows have different effect on society. He compares how television shows such as “24” and “Starsky and Hutch” can affect us in different ways. He explains