Public Speaking Speech: The Impact of Pop Culture

Pop culture generally refers to the dominant or prevalent traditions and aspects of material culture in a certain society. It consists of sports, politics, technology, fashion, and entertainment. All of which play a big role in influencing our society and youth. Hi I am M.E. and today I will be informing you all on the impacts of pop culture on our society. On ASU.edu I found that pop culture is best defined as, “ a collection of ideas, values, actions, goods and services that can be bought and sold to the mainstream masses.” Almost every person is exposed to the media. And if I know one thing about pop culture it is way too easy to become mesmerized in the seem to be picture perfect lives of those the media presents to us. Whether you simply notice the constant infiltration of celebrities' lives into our society or are heavily invested in all aspects of pop culture like me, it certainly impacts our society as a whole constantly.

I can tell you firsthand that growing up, pop culture impacted my life in many ways. I found it so easy to make comparisons between my own life and those of celebrities. It influences how one realizes themselves and causes a need for imitation of the lives one looks up to. There are so many aspects of what is portrayed to you through the media and the many different ways in which they affect you. Pop culture influences modern society in both positive and negative ways. To start, it assists teenage girls to define themselves based on what they perceive to be the standard of beauty. The way they define themselves is a huge factor in the maturation process of any teenager as it influences how they perceive themselves. According to act for libraries.org, it states, “For teens personal choices influence their self-definition while images and behaviors they see and learn from pop culture elements like songs, movies and adverts on TVs or social media in their everyday lives influence these choices.” It is also stated that It affects them cognitively meaning how they think, emotionally meaning how they feel and behaviorally...what they do. It is crazy to me to think about how the media plays such a defining factor in our lives. Pop culture provides what is perceived to be benchmarks that teenagers use to compare their own lives to and define themselves from there. It subconsciously affects the ways in which we define ourselves and make decisions starting at such a young and naive age.

No matter how easy it is to look up to your favorite celebrity or idolize the life they are living it is undeniable that negative effects do come with this as well. The way celebrities' lives are portrayed to the public through the media is just that. They are being portrayed or shown to be seen in a particular way. Most of what we see in the media is the picture perfect lives of these people. It creates unattainable standards that any normal person could not realistically achieve. They are only showing what they want us to see. It is easy to become immersed into these fairy tale universes yet it is hard to decipher what is real and what is not. In order to survive today's day with the ever growing amount of social media and pop culture infiltration, one must keep themselves in tune with reality and the normalcy of real life.

It is also to note that while pop culture introduces the youth to many different types of people and ways to live their lives, it also causes a lack of self-individuality. As stated on the moderatevoice.com, “ popular culture makes a weak way of self-expression because it lessens the individuality of a person, and makes culture stagnate on the limited definitions of pop culture. The masses, being the main consumers of pop culture, weaken its culture by having a dependence on an icon’s image, and this loses individuality and development of culture as a whole.” This resonates with me because it is easy to wish to be just like someone that the media presents to you. As stated on thehybridshelf.com, “pop culture often becomes a manifestation of what we want.” Pop culture creates a cult-like following where people only jump on the bandwagon of liking something because it is popular. People feel more satisfied to be a part of a group and what's popular than to actually enjoy whatever it is they are doing.

The penetration of pop culture into everyday life and society is ever growing and emerging more and more every day. With new developments of social media being constant and coming out every single day, the impact of pop culture on society increases more and more. Our society is slowly being taken over and run by social media. While new developments are always beneficial it is always important to stay aware of the negative effects something may bring. It is undeniable that pop culture helps people grow and be more accepting considering the vast amount of representation throughout the various genres in pop cultures. Pop culture keeps us informed on the growing and developing cultures of today's society while simultaneously affecting us subconsciously. When enjoying pop culture and the new information presented to you every day, it is important to keep reality in check in order to not get lost into an unattainable picture perfect world.