In today’s world, communication happens almost instantaneously thanks to technology. As a result of this, understanding and interpretation is also quicker of societal culture that’s progressing on a daily basis. The world has speed up too fast coming into the 21st century, and with it, the creation and progression of new slang, pop culture, gender progression, social class changes, and economy fluctuations. In James Paul Gee’s book “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning & Literacy”, a learning principle that stood out to me when mentioned was Semiotic principles. This term translates to learning about and coming to appreciate interrelations within and across multiple sign systems such as an idea or object which communicates meaning — and what meaning it communicates.

This can include modern advertisements that most people are familiar with, but others are not if they come from different parts.

This advertisement for example, communicates the idea of the famous fast-food chain brand: McDonalds. While never clearly stating the full name of the food chains name, or even it’s full logo, only people who understand it’s pop culture significance will know it’s McDonalds just from looking at half of the logo’s famous Golden Arches.

This next one is an advertisement that makes sense to people who knew or now know the capability of a famous brand and the products it sells.

This advertisements communicates how the first generation Apple computers, were way too advanced for more than half of the people in America, because of the technological advancement Apple was bringing to people’s home. But people knew that already, and some decided to buy Apple computers to see if they could handle using an intimidating piece of hardware.

Aside from advertisements that use Semiotic principles, these principles are also used in everyday ideas and actions we do or come across everyday. As mentioned before, the inevitability is that these principles can change form over time as a result of the world progressing further as a society. The “Content” and “Context” of ideas, opinions, or actions human beings generate, will change and become blurry as time passes on. This will bring it’s own set of problems in learning environments, where younger generations will have to gain a more complex insight at an early age to properly understand intricate societal norms.