How Pop Culture Affects Society

A+picture+of+Taylor+Swift

Variety

A picture of Taylor Swift

Kerah McCord, Staff Writer

What is pop culture and how is pop culture a huge influence on teenagers? It is described as transmitted through the mass media and is aimed particularly at younger people. Pop culture has a huge impact, especially on teenagers and influences the way a teenager dresses, thinks, acts, and feels. It can also affect how teenagers socialize with each other as well as their confidence and self-esteem. We can have confidence but then we see a really pretty person and we think why can’t I look like that? We tend to get insecure about the way we look, represent ourselves, how we look and how we can change that.

How does pop culture play a role in our society? Pop culture builds up and strengthens interactions with people who like the same things as others. Pop culture can also give us a sense of identity, meaning, and purpose. We can choose who we want to be and who cares what other people think. We are able to choose what we want to believe and it is our opinion what we believe in. 

You’re exposed to new things, new ideas: We are exposed to new clothes that celebrities wear like crop tops, shorts shorts, a lot of revealing clothes. We are exposed to movies, books, toys, etc. 

Many women and men experience poor body image because of what is shown on social media, television, and magazines. We see a woman with the perfect hourglass body figure and we think “Why can’t I look like that” “Why can’t my body look like that” When in reality there is no such thing as the perfect body because they are either in deceptively poor health or have edited their social media posts. When we see celebrities wearing revealing clothes like crop tops, we are influenced to think that women need to show their bodies and should be allowed to wear whatever they want.

There are various portrayals of events in the media and people are more empathetic because of that, and we are also exposed to new perspectives. We are also encouraged to socialize and we are able to start conversations and build a relationship with family and friends.