Popular Culture Magnified by Technology

Popular Culture: Discussion Questions
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Department of ABC, University – Whitewater
ABC 101: Course Name
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Popular Culture: Discussion Questions
Popular culture is magnified by technology. Drawing on as many examples as you can from the course, discuss and explain this statement.
Popular culture refers to a set of beliefs, practices, and objects that embody broadly shared meanings of a social system. It includes entertainment & leisure, trends & fashion, linguistic conventions, and consumption habits. According to O'Brien & Szeman (2018), popular culture is like a native mother tongue: something people know how to speak without resorting to guidebooks, courses, or lessons. Another aspect of popular culture is that many people across extensive geographical areas practice it. Unlike high culture, which was predominantly reserved for elite individuals in society, popular culture encompasses all members of the society, making it popular in the first place. However, the ability of popular culture to influence many people depends on the extent to which people are connected to technology. In essence, technology is central to the magnification of popular culture.
According to the Canadian theorist Marshal McLuhan (1964), technology, as an artistic medium, has greater material significance than the message it contains. This view highlight technology's impact on shaping a society's consciousness. In essence, technology not only creates new forms of entertainment but also changes individuals and societies by rewiring the means of engaging with the world (McLuhan, 1964). Technological inventions like the radio, photography, film, TV, smartphones, and the internet, along with their accessories, have all influenced consciousness and, therefore, culture. In terms of popular culture, these inventions are responsible for spreading beliefs, practices, or worldviews about issues like consumption, fashion trends, consumer behavior, and daily activities. Since technology connects many people, it influences the rate and extent to which more people become part of popular culture.
In linguistics, for instance, the word bro, loosely translated to brother, is among the most used slang today. More importantly, despite modern feminism's despise of male-oriented acronyms to refer to all genders in public discourse, bro is used across cultures where even women and girls use the same to refer to each other. Central to the global prevalence of this slang is the internet and social media, which highlights the role of technology in magnifying popular culture. Thus, for theorists like McLuhan, the message is not necessarily the most crucial aspect of technology in shaping culture. Instead, it is the technology itself, its ability to support the sprout of new ideas and circulate the ideas or messages to the broader audience, making technology a vital force within popular culture.
The combination of video, audio, image, and photography capabilities, combined with social media and the development of applications, for example, fueled the growth and prevalence of the selfie and filter cultures that are popular worldwide today. The selfie and filters cultures, in themselves...