Raymond L. Week 1 Response: Complex Mag: Do Soap Operas Even Matter In the Grand Scheme of life and society altogether?

It seems as though Soap Operas are becoming less and less popular this day in age because of streaming services and other aspects of media.  There seems to be a heavy decline in viewers of a typical soap opera and it doesn't seem like it will gain back any momentum any time soon.  However, with it's decline in popularity that does not mean there is no influence it has on various people's lives.  Many people back in the day were influenced by soap operas because of their immense power to shed light on certain aspects of life and problems in the social construct that is our society.  A prime example of that is Kalup Linzy and his artwork.  Kalup Linzy loves watching soap operas and he grew up watching them and basing his art off them.  His artwork is basically him reenacting different stories and scenarios that somehow pertain to his life or are otherwise made up by means of film.  His art is definitely something interesting to watch and can be seen as a work that has heavy prominence of soap operas. Soap operas also have been known to create awareness for social problems and helping people learn about different things in the world.  Soap operas have been credited with making people learn how to read, promoting tolerance of homosexual people and even sexual health.  It's crazy to think that they had and still sort of have this much influence on people. The lessons that soap operas teach are invaluable lessons and can help people through society.  So to conclude, Soap operas definitely have value in society and they do matter when it comes to life in general.