Week 11: Interview with a Young Person

As I do not have any young people to interview personally apart from a 2 year old girl obsessed with the Wiggles. As I am a bit over conversations about Emma the Yellow Wiggle, I instead asked a friend of mine to give the questionnaire to her twin daughters who are in year 6.

I found that they both like to read action and adventure books. Out of the four books they mentioned, only two were familiar to me: Hunger Games Catching Fire and Skulduggery Pleasant. The other two were The Golden Door by Emily Rodda (The Three Door series) and The Diamond Brothers: The Falcons Malteaser by Anthony Horowitz. Already there is a reference to a famous crime novel/film The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

When I asked LV whether popular culture influence her or made her smarter she replied: it doesn't really impact me in anyway to be honest i think something's impact the way we learn but i don't think all the things today help, sure they make life easier but that means that we're not really challenging ourselves to do stuff, somethings today confuse our brains to do stuff like how adds make us believe in a simple product.

In describing her favourite book, Skulduggery Pleasant, she mentioned that the ‘noun groups and vocabulary is very strong’. In this case it would appear that the popular culture in the form of the book is actually making her smarter by reinforcing noun groups and vocabulary which is great.

I won’t tell her this as personally, I think sometimes it’s best to leave popular culture as an “enjoyable” part of life, not an “educational” part. When I studied popular culture it actually first made me hate it/myself as every time I would watch something I would be analysing the social and cultural background and see how it was portraying the contemporary time. It took me awhile to be able to simply enjoy movies again.

Some things in life don’t need critical thinking/analysis all the time and sometimes learning can be done unconsciously. I do think encouraging children to critically engage with books and movies is important, but don’t take away from them the right to just simply vege out and enjoy something that might not be incredibly wholesome or education (especially when they’ve been at school all day!). I enjoyed books as they took me away from my world (and still do), asking me to critically engage that world with the real world probably would have made things depressing as it would have ruined the escape it offered me.

I would love to have sat down with SV & LV to do this interview in person, but unfortunately when it’s a single parent family, time isn’t a very accessible resource when their mother works full time and doesn’t live close. However, I still think they have provided me with some food for thought on popular culture and young people.

Questions:

What are you currently reading? Do you like it, why?

What’s your favourite book and why?

What are your favourite TV shows and movies at this time?

Why do you like them?

Are there any shows or movies that other young people are really liking which you hate? If yes, why don’t you like it?

If you could be any character you want, who would you choose?

Do you participate in any online communities where you discuss your thoughts on movies and shows?

Anything recommendations on shows or movies I should be watching?

Do any of these shows, movies or books influence you?

Do you think popular culture is making you smarter? Examples?