American Popular Culture

American Popular Culture


What is American Popular Culture (also known as Pop Culture)? As defined in it is” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes….that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture”. Popular Culture is heavily influenced by mass media and is the norm as the acceptable culture that the majority of the American population follows. . Another definition of Popular Culture is” Mass Culture” it is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for mass consumption.
From reality T.V. shows to” American Idol” or “dancing with the stars” television has a great influence on the American public. Our pop culture includes every aspect of our life and there isn't a moment during our daily lives when we are not exposed to one aspect or another of the pop culture. From the moment we wake up in the morning and watch the news that are embedded with countless commercials which trying to sell us anything and everything to make our lives “happier and/or easier”, to our daily drive to work where we pass billboards or listens to the radio. Open your mailbox and find countless magazines from "Victoria Secret" to "Oriental Trading" and every magazine in between, surf the Internet and Pop culture popping at you on every web site. We are surrounded by Pop culture 24/7/365, there is no escape. So what is the purpose of Pop culture? in my opinion the sole purpose of Pop culture is to separate us from our money and spend it if we have it or not.
So the question to be asked in light of all that information is: Are we a better society because of American Popular Culture? My answer to this question is NO and here is why. I believe the influence of the American Pop culture is more harmful than beneficial. We are all being molded into mindless society that follows the latest trend and being told how this “one thing” they are trying to sell us is going to make us happy or solve our problems. We are all individuals with different needs but it seems we are told we all part of a “global race”. Most people don’t seem to think for themselves they just follow everyone else. I call it “the herd mentality” if it’s good for them it must be good for me, just follow and don’t ask any questions.
The main change I’d like to see which will better American society, in my opinion, is for people to think for themselves. When people will think more clearly they would be able to make more rational decisions. As it is well known there are millions of people living with Hugh credit cards debt, people live way beyond their means. One of the contributors to this problem is that people are told by advertisers they deserve to have it now even if they can’t afford it. We can take a look at the “Sub prime mortgage crises” www.stock-market-investors.com that caused the economic recession we experiencing today and the main cause to this situation is people buying homes they couldn't’t afford but went ahead and bought them anyway.
In conclusion, we are all affected by American Popular Culture http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/ including me. I believe that in my case the influence of the culture is minimal. It might sound arrogant but I do think as an individual not as part of the herd. I do live within my means and don’t spend more money than I make, some of you might probably think it to be a strange concept. I don’t feel that I am better than or superior to anyone, I believe anybody can live the way I do with some thought and think a little further down the road, plan and save for a rainy day, not just of today here and now.

Popular Culture Survey

For my assignment of the pop culture survey I tracked my every element of popular culture I encountered over a course of three days. I started on February 2, 2010 till February 5, 2010 and here is my list:

• I listened to music on the radio
• I listened to talk shows on NPR
• I ate fast food twice
• I ordered movies from Netflix
• I saw a movie in a movie theater
• I surfed the Internet
• I watched TV
• I e-mailed
• I will watch the Super Bowl
• I visited number of web sites
• I watched TV commercials while watching TV programs
• I passed many bill boards while driving
• I received text messages and text back

So I hope you get the picture, I'm sure I missed a few things but our lives are filled with popular culture elements there is no escape. I try to use my good judgment as far as being influenced by these elements but, I admit, I fall in some of these traps from time to time.