Popular Culture in the 21st Century - Essay Example

Popular culture Introduction The world is characterized by the introduction of new ideas, practices and behaviors whichhas become adopted as cultures and accepted behaviors within the society. This form what is known as popular culture (pop culture), the development of ideas, practices and events that become the mainstream of human behavior and practices. Pop culture is influenced much by the perceptions developed by mainstream media that allows for the permeation of new practices and behaviors within the society. The use of social media like twitter, Facebook, MySpace and even YouTube has been a trending practice that today forms part of popular culture (Fedora 88). Facebook and twitter are considered as popular culture due to the massive number of people that use them as part of their daily activities to socialize, communicate and even advertise products in the market. In this paper, the development of social media platforms as the 21st century popular culture will be discussed to highlight how they continue to influence the reasoning and ways of life in modern society (Marsh & Brooks 15). Popular culture The growth in popularity in the social media sites can be attributed to a number of reasons including the fact that joining the sites is free and easy for any individual with a computer and internet connection. Entry is also not limited based on an individual’s social status, race or even religion and this has led to the cross cultural adoption of Facebook and twitter across the globe by people of all walks of life. Human beings are considered as social creatures whose lifestyle depends on the ability to interact with each other and have fun through communication and games. However, the 21st century is characterized by schedules that make actual interaction and communication between individuals impossible due to the different commitments that people are engaged in for different reasons (Marsh & Brooks 11). Social media has therefore provided a new platform for human to enjoy their social life without worrying about the geographical distance that separates them at any given time. Through Facebook and twitter, users are provided with an option to make virtual friends and interact with them in different ways to perpetuate the social nature of human beings. The growth of these sites into popular culture can thus be explained by the desire to fill the loneliness void created by the engagement that makes it impossible for people to interact physically (Fedora 90). The disappearance of the natural sense of community as a form of life for man has also been used to explain the growth in Facebook as a popular culture among people of different ages. Through Facebook, users are given the opportunity to engage in a communal kind of conversation where they get the opportunity to discuss various issues in their lives that they would have discussed in actual meetings. Traditional tale telling by the fireside has been replaced by virtual tale telling through Facebook and twitter due to the different engagements that make it impossible for people to come together as often as they used to. It is common to have individuals who have no idea who their immediate neighbor is or what he actually does but knows almost everything about another personal thousands of miles away. According to anthropologists, the emergence of social media as a popular culture in the United States and beyond can also be associated with the natural desire to groom (Petracca & Sorapure, 34). According to a report released by Facebook in 2008, the total numbers of users reached 175 million active users, a number that will make it the sixth most populous nation were it to be a country. However, a country has to a large extent a homogenous population while Facebook have a heterogeneous membership that spreads through all races, religions and ages across the world. Due to the current acceptance of this culture in the United States, different organizations, churches and political parties are using the platform to advance their course (Petracca & Sorapure, 34). This demonstrates that this one of the popular ways of life that has come to be accepted in the United States and beyond due to the massive following that it has. Philanthropists and well-wishers have resorted to social media sites to connect to different individuals across the world to advance their course and help the needy others. As such, social media provides a platform through which users can search for others that share in their ideologies and form a large community of similar minded group guided by the desire to help needy people in the society (Fedora 93). Social media such as Facebook and twitter have also attracted new group of users who aim to conduct scholarly and academic research by reaching different people as part of their study groups. Due to the current life of people that make it impossible to engage them physically in research activities through the administration of questionnaires, Facebook and twitter has made it possible to reach these people online and have them provide answers to their questions. Social media has also infiltrated the American politics and politicians are today adopting it to advance their political ideals, beliefs and plans by reaching out to a wide virtual population of voters (Petracca & Sorapure 34). The development of social media into one of the accepted popular culture in the 21st century has also proved to influence the decisions made by governments and government agencies through the active monitoring of the response of the people. For example, the Middle East leadership crisis that began in Tunisia and led to a massive revolution affecting Libya, Egypt and now Syria can be attributed to the power of social media. To counter the increasing aggressions, many governments in the Middle East identified the popularity of social media and decided to shut the internet traffic to make communication and virtual gathering impossible. The reaction by the government recognized the current place of social media as a virtual interactive communal site where different people with same ideals interact and share ideas whenever they cannot meet in person to discuss the issues that affect them (Marsh & Brooks 14). Marketing and advertising are traditional business practices that target customers distributed across the globe to encourage and dissuade them to buy their products. However, radio and television are no longer popular as social media sites and this has led to the massive migration of corporations into Facebook and twitter. A number of organizations today have Facebook pages and twitter handles where they not only advertise their products but also interact with the consumers to help solve their problems and address their concerns. Social media is thus used by corporates to help in the brand creation process, manage online reputation and improve the trusts of the online customers, attract more customers to buy your products, to develop new technological means of production and to shield off competitors from eating into your market share (Fedora 91). Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is one of the popular entrepreneurs and billionaires in the United States, not because of how much he makes in a year but because of the popularity of his site. Despite other computer science entrepreneurs attempting to create social media sites, Mark is considered as the first social media creator that has grown to become a household name and therefore a popular culture in his own way. Most youths and scientist at the silicon valley look up to Mark in their quests to make a difference in the world of programing and entrepreneurship, a fact that point out to the influence that social media alone has created on people. Conclusion Social media has continued to grow in influence and diversify in its applications beyond the youths, communal groups or even campus students to incorporate corporates and social organizations. Different institutions including political parties and government agencies today employ social media to reach out to the people and sell their ideas to them, getting a free and large platform to persuade them into buying the ideas and agreeing with the plans. These and others demonstrate the place that social media sites have taken in our society and place that they will continue to play in our lives. Popular culture continues to grow in popularity and is influenced by the reception of the people, the institutions and the governments who continue to embrace it in different ways (Marsh & Brooks, 14). There has been Facebook, twitter and MySpace to use, tools that have continued to play a critical role in defining our beliefs and approaches in life as a virtual community. Works cited Fedora, Shirley. Pop culture: The culture of everyday life. University of Toronto press. 2009. Print. Marsh, Jackie & Brooks, Greg. Digital beginnings: young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies. Literacy research center. 2005. Print. Petracca, Michael. & Sorapure, Madeleine. Common culture: Reading and writing about American popular culture. (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice. 2009. Print. Read More