Is Pop Culture Good for You?

Is Pop Culture Good for You?

By Denver Lo


The Good

   Movies, TV shows, music, fashion, technology, sports, and many more influence trends and connect people globally. From the latest movies to hit viral music and memes, everyone has been affected by pop culture’s influence. Popular culture affects how we perceive the world, it shapes our thoughts, conversations, and even identities. But is pop culture good for us?

               Popular culture has become an integral part of our lives and impact on our identities and decisions. Community engagement and persuasive influence create platforms for liked mind individuals providing opportunities for expression. From interest in TV shows and sport teams to fashion and music, pop culture encourages people to find communities where they could be accepted. Shared experience and social interactions can spark with referencing pop culture. Large communities connects people with same interests. Pop culture is a shared language allowing opportunities for people to create connections in an world that is divided.

 In Steven Johnson’s Watching TV Makes You Smarter discuss the craves for sophistication and complexities in media. For media companies to retain their viewership, movies and TV shows must keep us on the edge of our seats. Intricate character, unpredictable plots, and immersive ecosystems. These complex consumptions stimulate minds, boosting cognitive skills. Pop culture and its complex narratives promote brain functions, challenging audience in social perception, decision-making, and individual intellect. Hince the evolution of movies and TV shows, from their simple straight forward plots to complex vast ecosystems. Engagement with complexity viewer exercise critical thinking and sharpen personal skills, the lush creativity fuels transformations in our intellectual.

The Bad

Unrealistic standards and materialism is fueled by popular culture. Luxury cars, mansion, and seemingly perfect lives, the consistent features of unattainable lifestyles create a negative cycle of comparison. Ordinary achievements feel inadequate when idealizing these impossible ideals. Pop culture exposure of these perfect lives contributes low self-esteem and dimmish self-worth. Dissatisfaction gaps the reality, the audience chasing success that erodes happiness and sense of self. Selling a fantasy through social media deteriorates mental health, evident from the higher rate of depression and anxiety link with materialism according to University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Retweeted, he discusses the flaws of social media, while we are more globally connected to the influence from the media has minimum involvement or risk. This disconnection from reality has made meaningful ideas and goals obsolete. Influential changes require action and commitment, impact from social media does not have the same influence than physical involvement and a sense of sacrifice. Hiding behind a screen and posting is not enough to influence and connect with liked-minded individuals. The consequences and risk associated with physical involvement is fundamental in developing deep bonds with members of a community seeking changes. You can not get the same connection when identity is hidden behind a keyboard with no real risk involved.

Pop culture has the ability to challenge out minds fostering growth as well as deteriorate our sense of self-worth with impossible ideals. Pop culture should not be rejected but engaged with the intent of fostering our knowledge. An understanding is required to recognize the illusion from the value pop culture could provide. The value is entirely dependent on our interaction with pop culture.



Reference:

            University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 2017. Association between Social Media Use and                     Depression among U.S. Young Adults. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4853817/

Steven Johnson. 2005. Watching TV Makes You Smarter.

Malcolm Gladwell. 2010. Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not be Tweeted

Dr. Abhishek Kumar Singh. 2022. A Study of Popular Culture and its Impact on Youth’s Cultural                     Identity.            https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366841460_A_Study_of_Popular_Culture_and_its_Impact_on_Youth%27s_Cultural_Identity

 


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