In an Intro. to Mass Communications class, we students were asked to draft a response to the following questions: "What do you think about the value of pop culture? Does pop culture inhibit the growth of high culture?"
Pop culture is considered time and time again to be overrated. Many of my peers here seem to believe so, and at times, I also find myself falling into this hole as well, in underrating pop culture. The order that it seems to take, is when you are younger, you are more deeply fascinated by the popular culture, what “everyone else is into”, and then the older you get, the more placate you become, and the more that high culture media intrigues you. Why is this, exactly? Of course, when you are younger, and your life is all about making friends, school, clubs, and sports, you do desperately want to fit in somewhere. It is hard to tell exactly where for most people. Some never actually find that spot that they belong, who they truly are and want to be. Pop culture, however, is a large key factor in the discovering of self-identity, particularly by giving you the ability to find yourself in others, the bonds that you share, the ideals, interests, behaviors, all that you share.
Pop culture helps us as well, whether we realize it or not, to formulate that sense of empathy within ourselves for the people around us, and carefully consider society as we seem to know it. In my personal opinion, I do not believe that pop culture actually inhibits the growth of high culture, or the acceptance of it, but rather, opens the door wider for it. Growing up listening to all sorts of music, pop culture considered and others, reading all sorts of novels, plays, poems, and so on, I was able to pick and choose how I wanted to define myself and recognize myself within others around me, then as I did grow, and found myself dabbling in what is considered high culture, I was able to further challenge myself and what I knew, developing further as an individual person.
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