Popular Culture Comparisons
Our generation is experiencing the ever-expanding role of social media in our society, as it is being integrated deeply into our popular culture from many different angles. As argued in Reading the Signs, popular culture is multi-faceted as seen portrayed in the advertising media (Maasik, 2010).
Social media is currently dominating our new popular culture, as reflected in the phenomenal growth and success of networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Before the advent of social media, the old popular culture was more homogenous and centered around a few core issues that carried a clear and unified message, and which found expression through music, fashion, literature, and film (Maasik, 2010). If you followed the message, you were “in;” if you didn’t follow the message, you were “out.” The biggest difference between social networking and the old popular culture is the origin of “the message.” The messages in the old pop culture tended to evolve out of some element in society, their point of origin was clear, and they reflected the people, they also have to something of value to attract interest. By contrast, the messages that evolve through the social networks of the new pop culture seem to have no connecting with anything happening in society, come out of nowhere, reflect nothing in particular, and no one knows why they have attracted your attention.
In addition, language has always provided young people with a way to set themselves apart from adults, by changing words, or creating new words, or giving an established word or expression a new meaning. In the old pop culture, new words were shared throughout a whole generation; for example, you can imagine who would say, “cool, man,” or “type A behaviour.” But, the language of the new pop culture social networks can change overnight and is more technical. Social networks have created a whole new way of expression that is centered and thrives on constant change. The language is shared for a few months, of even just weeks or days. This has redefined traditional popular culture in ways that could never have been imagined, has transformed thought, and has widened the communication gap between the younger and older generations.
A typical example of the manner in which the new pop culture social networks such as Twitter have come to control and transform our pop culture is their creation of overnight sensations that compels the engagement of everyone connected to the network (Maasik, 2010). This means that people who had never given a particular topic a thought will suddenly become totally absorbed in the subject and not talk or think about anything else; until, the next Twitter alert of a new disconnected topic. There are no borders, no central focus, nothing to call your own. It is a new culture of constant change, of murky and fast moving currents of communication. This makes it very difficult for the advertisers, because they can no longer “borrow the aura of something that is already popular and hoping that it will be transplanted to the product or service that is for sale” (Maasik , p172), because whatever is made popular by social networks won't be there for long. And should advertisers succeed in getting our attention, they won’t get it for very long.
In spite of this, our new popular culture can also be seen in different ways, especially when one focuses on how life today is so different than what it used to be. We must remember that the success of the advertisement industry depends on its ability to control and manipulate our lives, and we must learn to recognize the tricks it tries to play on us in its attempt to take over our lives, our values, and transform the way we see the world. So you must look around and ask yourself, as you’re bombarded with advertising, “Why am I being shown that, or being told this?” (Maasik p175). For example, the myth that women are all out to have unprotected sex with men is regularly portrayed in the media. Obviously, and thankfully, this sort of promiscuity is far from the truth. This is “commodification of desire” (Maasik p177). But I think that the new pop culture has elements in it that the media has difficulty in exploiting. The old pop culture was easier to manipulate.
This brings about a considerable dilemma when one is faced with the unpredictable nuances of our new popular culture. While the basic logic of advertising may be similar from generation to generation, what is shown, and thus what it means, differs as popular culture changes Everything changes when life takes on certain aspects and we are all faced with moral dilemmas, which stresses the vital importance of taking control over our popular culture and in resisting its pervasive influence on everything we do (Maasik, 2010). American old pop culture tended to swing like a pendulum motion from one contrasting idea to the next (Maasik, p179). The new pop culture seems to explode in all directions.
However, when viewed from a different viewpoint, we can appreciate the value of our new popular culture. Perhaps a tweet on Twitter about the Hollywood glitterati would make some people jump up as the tweeter hoped, but there are those amongst us that would be looking at the same tweet from a different viewpoint. The same goes with Facebook, where a particular group suddenly skyrockets to fame only to just as suddenly be forgotten to then vanish into oblivion.
Generation gaps may also exist in the way we define popular culture, and this is immediately apparent when discussing the interpretation of a book, as a typical example. Popular culture may also be prevalent in political issues of the day and where politics is important this often takes central stage. The way a t-shirt is worn also indicates the importance of a certain viewpoint or philosophy, which might mean that life is simply the way forward in this respect, but it could also mean that others are being kept from achieving what they want or need (Maasik, 2010).
So, then – is popular culture a myth?
Popular culture remains important in every respect, but one must guard against its subtle trappings, and the damage to our values it might cause if left to go unchecked. Yet again, one has to observe the strict behaviour that some cultures adhere to before everything comes together to fuse society together. We can never, and perhaps should not, compare popular culture with mainstream culture, but we can say that popular culture is a vital element of society (Maasik, 2010).
Works Cited
Maasik, Solomon. Signs of Life in the USA, Readings on Popular Culture for Writers.
New York, Bedford St Martin’s (2010). Print
Maasik, Solomon. “Brought to You B(u)y” in Signs of Life in the USA, Readings on Popular Culture for Writers.
New York, Bedford St Martin’s (2010). Print
