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Constantino Gomez Pena

Professor Ogbara
English 1A
21 September 2015

Thinking Never Heard of it?

Netflix, Twitter, the latest mobile apps, Vevo, Microsoft, Xbox, Vine, and Facebook are
all popular in their own right, but not thinking, well thinking critically to be more precise.
Humanitys logic and reasoning, and most innovative tool, ever heard of it? Of course not,
independent thinking is not popular, that is exactly my point, how pop culture robs us from
analytical intelligence. The mainstream media causes people to act, dress, and think a certain
way, where it corrupts our youths to fit in rather than to think freely , and finally we as society
deny critical thinking in our pop culture.
The thing about pop culture is that almost anything can become popular, it varies from
many different aspects of life such as, music, famous stars, games, technology, clothing, even
certain ideals and views on a certain topic. Francis Bacon writes in his essay The 4 Idols
(paragraph 6) all the received systems are but so many stage plays representing worlds of their
own creation after unreal and scenic fashion. If a certain topic of discussion gains enough
popularity it will be shown all through the media, I believe bacon is describing how popular
beliefs and views can influence our ideals in debatable topics. For example, terrorists was a
infamous concern, during 2001, because americans fear the amount of chaos terrorists can create,
however there are instances when people have linked terrorism to Muslims, and to all people
from the Middle East, yes a atrocious notion that a majority of citizens believed, in the past. How

can such an assumption be made, well it was a popular belief among the nation during the threats
from the Tailaband, endless footage of foreigners burning the U.S. flag constantly being
broadcasted through the media. This is how pop culture can cultivate our views on people,
religion, and countries, where americans thought the same as everyone else and not for
themselves.
As I stated before, pop culture robs a man from his side of reasoning, stealing his
independence, by telling that man how to dress, talk, and act. From the latest clothing from
H&M and to the weirdest hairstyles, fashion seems to be a big factor in pop culture, clothing
industries everywhere displaying what is hot and not making people blindly following the
coolest set piece of clothes to wear. Francis Bacon talks about idol of the cave and in one
particular paragraph how we as humans are quick to believe the good in something, also known
as wishful thinking he also states from his essay The 4 Idols while the others are lost in
admiration in the structure that they do not penetrate the simplicity of nature Francis Bacon is
talking about how scholars believe that their philosophy is perfect and how they dont question
it. This can be applied to pop culture as in why humans are so quick to follow a certain
fashionable item like clothes or even a new slimmer phone, for instance, customers buying the
latest apple product like the iphone 6, do the mass phone lovers really need a cell phone costing
400$ with just a better battery and sleeker design or perhaps the people have convinced
themselves that it is the most up-to-date and perfected phone in existence because of its
popularity. This thought process demonstrates how we as humans are weak to our own emotions
and the mainstream, a display of our wishful thinking.
Moving on, pop culture can also corrupt the inexperienced brains of our youth, making
children ignore critical thinking, and to instead appeal to their own social groups, and popularity

portrayed in the media. In Gerald Graffs hidden intellectualism he brings up intriguing

questions, in (paragraph 40) he writes What would you gain or lose if you translated your
street smarts into more intellectual forms of expression? Is being an intellectual a good or bad
thing? What is an intellectual anywayshould the word be synonymous with nerd or dweeb or
with being cool?. In this Gerald speaks about how streets kids have street smarts and how they
have a latent intellectual side, street kids refuse to accept an enlightened way of thinking because
as Gerlad states, they might have gains but also losses. Losses, being coolness their image to
others, or even their own close friends, and not just street kids, but kids as a whole. Children are
quick to believe almost anything that is taught to them, so if being able to think critically collides
with the portrayal of it being a dweeb or nerd, and with the pop culture displaying nerds as
losers that act dorky, is it ny wonder why young kids would rather avoid seeking intelligence and
critical thinking, to them it would just be uncool
It is human nature to seek social interactions with others, but arguing with with your
friends can dismantle a friendship, and for adolescent teens who want to feel belonged, this is
what they avoid. Under the influence of pop culture, where many people share the majority of
interests,perspectives, and ethics, the young will group themselves together to what the
mainstream likes, this can be a problematic for critical thinking. Gerald mentions how arguing
and debating is a key element to an analytical thought process, he says in (paragraph 10) I put
special emphasis on argumentation as the form in which intellectualism needs to learn to express
itself to become effective in the public sphere he explains earlier that when in a heated debate,
your mind activates it critical thinking process, trying to analyze everything about the
information about a topic of debate, fully understanding and looking at it from all viewpoints,
finding support for it with evidence and faults to disprove it, which in essence, is the very

foundation of critical thinking. However, for a child that wants to belong, they feel more content,
to just agreeing with the majority, to gain more friends, influenced by his peers to follow the
trend, because of its popularity.
Finally, the fact that pop culture does not showcase critical thinking in the spotlight is
why it is downplayed in society, because we the the people start the trending, we control the
spotlight, we decide what is popular and what is unpopular. Humankind is quick to dismiss
critical thinking,