Mass Media Effect

One time, my brother entered someone he knows' car, not his friend but someone he knew. My brother noticed a big yellow thing sitting in the back seat. When my brother turned his head toward it, he freaked out, a huge Spongebob doll taking a space of a real passenger sitting in the back. My brother asked that person about the reason of having an Enormous Spongebob in the back seat. That person's reply was " for girls". Which is a lame reason in my opinion. 

Anyway to that person Spongebob is a symbol of attraction, his enormous size will probably attract the attention of anyone in the road. 

Because of the Mass Media and the cultural diffusion, Spongebob became a phenomenon that cannot be denied, you can see him everywhere in a different forms. The following images show few examples of Spongebob items: 

What really caught my attention is the fact that many adults are also interested in this character. Even though the main audience for this character are children.

Some questions came to my mind when I think about adults who like spongebob, like:

How do we look at an adult who is waering a Spongbob clothes, especially men?

How do the old generation people look at that person compared to people from the new generation?

Isn’t it important for those people to think about how people will at them?

Many people judge on others by their appearances. Spongebob is usually associated with children, a symbol; probably that person will be looked at as a childish person, especially from the people of old generations. People from the new generation on the other hand might look at Spongebob as a cute and funny character and obtaining his items is just a choice and nothing more.

Regardless, I think the Spongebob fan should imagine and role-take before wearing it?   

In general, is Spongebob a negative or positive influence on society?

Regarding this question, I would like to share an article called “SpongeBob SquarePants: Bad Influence on Children?” This article showed a result of a research in which 2 groups of 4 years old children had an attention tests after doing an activity for 9 minutes. One group spent the nine minutes watching Spongbob, while the other group spent the nine minutes in drawing. Surprisingly the children who scored a higher result are the ones who spent their time in drawing.

This phenomenon is not first of its kind, Power Rangers and Pokemon were a big hit too. It is the Mass Media and the cultural Diffusion are behind these phenomenon. God knows about what will come later.  

Works Cited: 

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/212095/20110912/spongebob-cartoon-cognition-concentration-problem-research.htm