Pop Culture

I have always had an interest in pop culture and the media.  Pop culture is focused around the perspectives and ideas coming from art forms, sports, politics, and any other category deemed “popular” by the media.  As a Millennial, I grew up with the fast and vast technological advances.  This allowed pop culture to become easier to disperse across the world and grew to more prominence in the eyes of the mass population.  For most people they write off pop culture as a very low and uneducated form of culture, one that does not have much merit to it.  But as an avid follower of pop culture, I believe that it is an underrated form to communicate globally about issues and morals while also connecting all ethnic, social, and economic cultures.  In a TEDx talk by Alexandre O. Philippe, he expresses why pop culture is important towards changing and viewing our collective culture.  Philippe calls pop culture a “universal language” that connects everyone regardless of their “racial, social, or political divides.”

So why then “must we be so serious about what divides us and trivialize what brings us together?”  Philippe’s question is a valid one.  Why do we not care at all about what we have in common?  Pop culture is a way to bring us together, to unite us.  It is something that we all can have in common and be a part of.  Gaudium et Spes even talks about the importance and influence that pop culture can have.

"Literature and the arts are also, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing mans place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions." (Gaudium et Spes 62).

Pop culture describes and emulates human life.  Sometimes it more fictitious than real, but it stems from real people and relatable concerns and issues.  Pop culture has the ability to improve and ruin the progress of our society.  The rise of reality television in the most recent years has been a large component in this progress.  If you look at the show , 16 and Pregnant, while not highly educational in its script and or plots, has been able to help educate more young people about teen pregnancy.  Teen pregnancy has decrease since the start of the series to a record low in the United States.  At the same time, if we look at a show like The Jersey Shore, there seems to be no moral or take away component from the show.  In fact, for the Catholic Church, it is a show that is deemed morally corrupt with the behavior of the individuals on the show.  Ultimately it just depends.  Pop culture can unite us and teach us moral and important issues in a very quick and simple manor, but if we do nothing with them to expand and deepen their meaning, we are likely to forget the messages and miss the powerful influence of pop culture.