Sunday, September 30, 2012

What is popular culture?


Popular culture is the customs, values, institutions and artifacts that are present at a particular point in time in society that affect and are generally accepted by the majority of the population in society.  This type of culture identifies with common elements of our lives and is representative for most in our society.  Popular culture is constantly evolving and changing more rapidly in this technological age which brings us closer and closer together through our electronic devices.

To me, popular culture represents a set of ideals and values that have been distributed mostly by the media which has great influence over the population that can communicate to most of society and cannot be repressed by social barriers.  This encompassing culture is inescapable and cannot be ignored unless you our outside of society.  Since most of us are part of society, popular culture affects our daily lives in the minutest of ways from when we begin to speak and understand language to long into our adulthood.  The idea of popular culture can be both good and bad depending on the message.  It is up to us as intelligent individuals to discern which messages are simply the “sign of the times” and which messages are there to deceive us.  Knowledge is the tool we have to interpret our popular culture and begin to understand what these values and ideals represent.

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