Popular culture, populism and more!
We often shun popular culture or entertainment news, calling it trivial. But what if there's more to it than what meets the eye?
Hello readers,
It’s been a while since we checked in with you here. We hope you’re doing well and are enjoying the summer months!
Things have been busy at the Owliver headquarters, but we hope you have been visiting our website to see what we’ve been up to. If not, don’t worry about it — we’re here to fill you in.
The ‘cancel culture’ debate
What does being ‘cancelled’ mean in this day and age? A recent phenomenon, called ‘cancel culture’ or ‘call-out culture’, the term refers to the rejection of people in the public eye for actions or words that are deemed offensive, hurtful or plain illegal. The result is often the ruining of careers, reputations and in some cases, jail. The subject stemmed from all the (ugly) news around actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, with the public wanting both ‘cancelled’ at different points. This made for an interesting debate topic for our participants, with many important questions and points being made.
An invisibility cloak that looks a lot like a plain old t-shirt
Facial recognition has been a highly debated topic in the last few years — is surveillance a good thing or is it harmful to the privacy of citizens? A t-shirt made us think about this. A t-shirt? Yes, but this is no ordinary t-shirt. It has the technology to block out facial recognition software. Our Think with Owliver participants enjoyed this topic, and were able to understand the nuances of safety, invasive technologies and artificial intelligence.
Populism and French politics
The elections in France gave us a lesson in ‘populism’ — a political ideology. Through Emmanuel Macron’s politics, we were able to touch upon this important topic and create an immersive experience for our participants. We created a populist figure who is fighting in student body elections, helping the participants understand what makes a leader appeal to the masses and why.
Our weekly round-up of stories you should know!
Have you checked out our weekly news round ‘Missed Out’? Some times, we miss out on stories in the midst of ALLLL the information out there! So, we at Owliver’s Post make it a point to keep our young readers up to date on the interesting, whacky, fun or plain bizarre things happening around the world!
That’s it for this week, readers! We will be sure to back soon. This is a bi-monthly newsletter, and we hope you continue to follow our work!