“Social Change Through Popular Culture”

Abstract

Popular culture consists of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other artifacts in the mainstream of a given culture. Such examples as movies, actors, sports, TV shows, games, singers, clothes and toys seemingly all a part of pop culture. Mass media significantly influences pop culture, where it infuses our everyday lives in society. Pop culture shapes our identity through what is considered popular at that moment in time in society. Pop culture, as described by Martin and Nakayama (2011), is “produced by culture industries. . . . is different from folk culture. . . . is everywhere. . . . [and] fills a social function” (pp. 202-203). During society’s free time, many items from pop culture are bought or enjoyed by people for entertainment. If a large number of people know about it, talk about it and experience it, chances are it is a part of pop culture (Simmons, 2011)!

Full text

Running head: Modern popular culture 1
“Social Change Through Popular Culture”
Patricia Freeman
HMNT – 3001C
11/22/2015
Prof. Jamey Heit

Author Note

Modern popular culture 3
“Everything that man accomplishes or does, that
he teaches or wants to learn must have its right proportion.” – Pico Della Mirandola
Introduction
Popular culture consists of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other
artifacts in the mainstream of a given culture. Such examples as movies, actors, sports,
TV shows, games, singers, clothes and toys seemingly all a part of pop culture. Mass
media significantly influences pop culture, where it infuses our everyday lives in society.
Pop culture shapes our identity through what is considered popular at that moment in
time in society. Pop culture, as described by Martin and Nakayama (2011), is “produced
by culture industries. . . . is different from folk culture. . . . is everywhere. . . . [and] fills a
social function” (pp. 202-203). During society’s free time, many items from pop culture
are bought or enjoyed by people for entertainment. If a large number of people know
about it, talk about it and experience it, chances are it is a part of pop culture (Simmons,
2011)!
Pop culture plays a big part in shaping our society’s cultural identity. According to
Nadine Dolby (1999, as cited in Martin & Nakayama, 2011), “Popular culture, at the end
of the 20th century, is a key site for the formation of identities, for the ways in which we
make sense of the world, and locate ourselves within it. (p. 210)” The existence of pop
culture is all around us. As our culture relates to modern cultural, while making use of
popular cultures in many ways; we are forming a cultural identity as individuals as a
whole. Depending on how we as individuals view cultural identity. For some of society

will avoid many different types of popular culture if it means strengthing their cultural
identity.
Life regulation and constructing individual identities is what our culture provides
for the community. In today’s society, when referring the term culture; it represents the
whole of a societies thoughts, behaviors, and values transmitted socially. Also, in relation
as to people who consciously identify with the community. When referring to the term
subculture; it represents the existence of a group within a culture. Typically, social class,
ethnicity, or geographic region seemingly based on subcultural.
When referring to the prefix sub, it characteristically means “less than.” Although,
many scholars prefer to use the term co-culture instead of subculture. Co-culture
represents a cultural group that is at a power disadvantage to the dominant cultural group
(Gillespie, 2015). Finally, the term subgroup represents the group that provides a
relatively complete sets of values and patterns of behavior (Slideshare, 2015).
Social life in societies is most complicated for we are individuals with different
identities, beliefs, and values. Individuals, who are a part of multiple groups, seemingly
having various social norms, social roles, and different expectations as individuals. As
stated by David Matsumoto (2010), “People move rapidly in and out of the numerous
groups in society. Thus, creating an enormous potential for social chaos, which can easily
occur when individuals not well coordinated in a culture and when the relationships in a
culture are not constructed productively and organized accordingly (David Matsumoto,
2010).
The regulation of society allows individuals and groups to negotiate the social
complexity of human social life, thereby maintaining social order and preventing social

Modern popular culture 5
chaos (Gloria, Rieckmann & Rush, 2000). Culture does this by providing a meaning and
information system to its members, which is shared by a group and transmitted across
generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and
well-being, and derive meaning from life (Matsumoto, 2007a).
Conclusion
Social change begins with how we as adults, as parents, as teachers, as role
models and as families influence and what we allow to influence the younger generations.
The positive impact is the tool needed to help regulate the negativity of our and others
societies. Generation after generations children grows up into adults. Generation after
generations more negativity consumes children, shapes their identity and determines their
role part in their adulthood.
Humans are social creatures and even subtle changes in children’s social
environments can make them more aware of their connection to the group (Glushkova,
Zoakoi, Boldrini, Bracchini & Arconi, 2013). A core value of the developmentally
appropriate practice is to create a caring community of individuals. (Copple &
Bredekamp 2009). “It is important to point out that there are vast cultural differences and
that adults in some cultures emphasize prosocial skills far more than others. In prosocial
development, as in other aspects of children’s lives, families are the first and most
influential teachers (NAEYC, 2011).”

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