Assignment 1-4-4

My popular culture topic of “Will e-readers (Kindles, Smartphones, etc.) eventually replace the traditional paper book?” applies to the theories of both heroes and the cult of the celebrities. Heroes can be found in almost any book and the more books the better. Celebrity magazines are also only a click away on an e-reader.

Heroes are found in books, games, everyday life and in the news. E-readers can have a lot of books stored on one device. All you have to decide is on what sort of hero you are in the mood for, and then pull up the book up from your collection and read about them. If you have an electronic e-reader that does more than just store books, you can probably get on the internet and read the local news. I find an article almost every day about someone that has performed a heroic act. There are also games you can play on most electronic e-readers. I am more into puzzles but I have seen a lot of adventure games on there where heroes make their way through quests to reach their final goals. There are sports games you can play if you are into sport’s heroes. There are even little kid heroes like Dora and Sponge Bob that go through little adventures that help teach young children. I’m not sure how positive a hero like Sponge Bob would be but I’ve watched Dora the Explorer with my grandkids and they really like her.

The cult of celebrities are also more accessible on e-readers than magazines. When I go through the list of apps you can get, I see a ton of different magazines. You can subscribe to all the celebrity ones you want and have them only a click away when you want to read about them. There are many fans that have to know everything that is going on in the celebrity world. These apps will likely keep you updated on the latest information. Personally, I am not interested in the cult of celebrities because I feel that it is a waste of time. I do not have any of these apps downloaded on my e-reader.

The insights that I have gained from applying these theories to my topic is that I will never look at games the same way. I will always be looking for the hero and the concepts of a hero will go through my mind as I play certain games. When I am playing games with my grandkids, I will be more conscious of the heroes that they are playing to see whether they can be a good or bad influence on them. I will also be more aware of the heroes outlined in the books I read. As far as celebrities go, I am more disenchanted with their life style more than I was before applying this theory. I have no interest in downloading any magazines that glorify the bad behavior of a celebrity. However, I do have to mention that despite the bad publicity around celebrities, there are some really good ones out there as well.