Southern New Hampshire Definitions of Popular Culture Discussion

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Business Finance

  • How do the two definitions of popular culture help illustrate how popular culture and society are intertwined? How can a perspective through the four lenses help to provide a greater understanding of popular culture?

    Reply 1: Katelynn Windland
    Hello,My name is Katelynn (I go by Kayte) and I live in Morton, Illinois (Pumpkin Capital of the World! You’re welcome pumpkin spice coffee lovers). I live with my husband, and our 4 children – two 5 year olds, one 4 year old, and one 6 month old. I work at the Peoria Riverfront Museum as an event coordinator. I am a European history major and am two terms away from graduation! Choosing an artifact of popular culture turned out to be tough for me. I don’t watch television often, or utilize social media all that much, and I only read historical books. So while it may not be generation defining, I’d say that historical dramas are at an all time high in popularity. Just look at Game of Thrones – obviously there were dragons, but the main plot was based on The War of the Roses (a 30 year war in England that took place in the 15th century). TV Shows like The Crown, Reign, and Victoria are all of high interest to audiences everywhere. Popular Culture is dynamic – it is constantly changing and evolving – and in this world of social media it is moving at an unprecedented rate. It is different for each person, depending on age, location, and exposure to society. Yet, as a whole, popular culture can define a generation. Popular Culture can affect clothing, hair, speech, what we eat, what we believe, what we watch, who we listen to, how we spend our time, even how we decorate our homes. It can become how this era is remembered. As I stated above, I don’t actively go out of my way to engage in many of the popular trends of the day, but I still believe that it affects me in regardless. Such as in my interactions with others when I hear slang terms such as ‘tea’ and ‘fleak’ (although it took me way to long to understand that ‘spilling the tea’ meant something else entirely). It affects what my children are into such as unicorns, superheros, and Paw Patrol. Being a history major, it seems a little ironic to say that popular culture can affect my future career in history. However, I would like to pursue my masters degree and eventually teach while also writing and publishing books about British monarchy. Luckily, interest in the royal family is high currently and historical fiction movies are being released often. The Kings and Queens of England are a topic of interest for academics and non-academics alike currently as evidenced by many historical fiction movies being released in the last decade. As more people see these movies, the more interest grows in it’s history. I’ve heard many people say that they got interested in an area of history because they saw a movie about it. I believe that since I am aware that people are watching these movies that I can also be aware that these movies take a lot of liberty with all of their facts in order to help the story line flow or to increase drama. It can be my job as a historian to help increase awareness of historical events, while also making sure that the facts are correct.
    Reply 2: Hello Class,
    My name is Christiana and I currently live in Orange County, California about 8 miles away from Disneyland. I am almost finished with my Bachelors in Psychology here at SNHU. I only have two more terms left. I work in mental health with Orange County assisting individuals transitioning out of homelessness sustain housing.
    I knew when I started this class that I wanted to explore an element of literature. Reading has been such an integral part of my life. I considered writing about the Harry Potter series, but was unsure if that was an appropriate avenue. So, I have chosen fairy tales for my artifact. Fairy tales have a rich history of importance spanning decades as early as the 1800’s. In fact, fairy tales are so popular that Disney, a fortune 500 company, partially built its empire on “fairy tales”.
    Popular culture is hard to define because it is not just a particular, definable source of information. I think that I would define pop culture as a group of shared ideas that permeate a society’s experience. It provides almost a symbiotic relationship within society by both influencing and reflecting back. I believe that I use popular culture every day. I tend to have some social anxiety and can be quite awkward at times especially in regards to making small talk. I utilize information surrounding popular culture in order to relate to my peers often as an ice breaker. The authors recognized that a universally accepted definition of popular culture does not exist and many of the accepted definitions often conflict with each other (Delaney & Madigan, 2016).
    Ultimately, after finishing my B.A. I would love to pursue a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and get licensed in California as a therapist. Ideally I would like to specialize with transitional age youth. I believe that utilizing popular culture might be a way to break the ice or to relate to the teenagers I’m serving. In the past I’ve used that as a tactic to make that age group more comfortable and trusting in order to open up. The book makes an excellent point that popular culture assists individuals in both understanding and relating to each other (Delaney & Madigan, 2016).
    I am looking forward to getting to know each of you throughout the term.
    Respectfully,
    Christiana Sanders