Popular Culture’s Influence on Children’s Identity
What exactly is popular or pop culture? Popular culture by definition is a contemporary life style that is generally accepted by a large population of people. However, from this point forward, pop culture will take on a more common definition. It’s the popular “written literature and broadcasting, music, dance and theater, arts, sports and recreation and other cultural aspects of social life.” While the dynamic of what is popular varies from region to region within the United Sates, the broad based literature, movies, and music genres cross most of these boundaries. Take for example the summer blockbuster movie. While the topic of the 2004 hit movie Shrek 2 might not appeal to everyone, it was popular enough to make it a household name. The same is true for certain books or music albums. Both Harry Potter and American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson are also known by the majority of Americans regardless if they have read the book or own the CD. Pop culture is what is on the minds of people at any given time. It can last an instant, a month or even a year. The phrase, “fifteen minutes of fame” is a pop culture term used for something that is only popular for a short time, then fades into the background. (Collection)
No matter where you go, you are surrounded by pop culture. Whether you are reading a magazine, watching television or a movie you rented from Blockbusters, or even listening to the radio in your car, you are exposed some form of pop culture on a daily basis. Pop culture is so ingrained into our society that it’s almost impossible not be influenced by it. This is especially true for the youth of America today. With easier access, quicker results, and uninformed parents, children are exposed to a tremendous amount of information fed to them by the pop culture world. This influences and shapes the identities of our children. The good thing, however, is not all of it is negative and if parents are educated and aware of what their children are doing pop culture can be used positively to help mold the children of the future.
The beginnings of popular American culture can be traced back to the early 1900’s. The medium used to expose people to popular aspects of society, however, was much different. The general public had access to radio and print on a daily basis, thus both were utilized fully to get the public’s interest in specific topics. Music, poetry, fiction, and theater all began to influence people in the early 1920’s. Teenagers began to form their own cliques in schools based on what was popular in the world at the time. Parents found it harder to relate to their children what ‘fads’ such as flappers, swing dancers, and going to the drive in became increasingly popular in the 1940’s.
The biggest change occurred between the 50’s and the 70’s. These thirty years were the most influential years and the beginnings of wide spread pop culture phenomenon. From rock and roll to the flower children hippies, the dissention between parents and children continued to grow as access to pop culture became easier with more broad based mediums such as television and movies.
In the early 1980’s the world wide web or internet, a virtual space which connects computers to stored information as well as other computers, slowly gained popularity as a business tool to transmit information instantaneously. The more it was used, the larger the online community became thus attracting people from all walks of life searching for instant information. By the mid 1990’s it became clear that the new internet media offered a plethora of popular topics as well as other previously unknown information from around the world. This appealed to a wide audience, and the internet was no longer just for business men, people of all ages found themselves buying computers and logging on. “Today, nearly seventy-five percent of American households have access to the world wide web.” Millions of emails (electronic mail) are sent around the world in any given day. With such varied access and immediate response available, American children have more information at their fingertips today then any other group of kids or teens have had in the last one hundred years. (Osborne)
“One of the most important features of childhood and adolescence is the development of identity.” Within a few hours of being born, a child begins to identify with the world around them. Children absorb everything from sounds, smells, the touch of their mother’s hand and even emotions from the people around them despite their inability to comprehend fully. This early stage of development is the foundation for a child’s future identity. If they are born into poverty, a mixed family of languages and cultures, a small village or penthouse suite in Manhattan, the environment has a tremendous impact on who that child will become in the future. While environment is not the only means to forming an identity, it is one of the more significant, well researched, and documented influences responsible for identity in the early stages of life. (Anderson)
A child learns and absorbs all the information around them on a daily basis thus helping them to formulate their own ideals, opinions, and outlook on life. Many children mimic or take on personality traits of people around them in early stages of development. If these children are overly exposed to pop culture media such as television or movies, some part of their newly formed identity will be based on this medium.
Parents and teachers are important factors early in a child’s development. They are the primary educators and influence a child’s behavior and culture. Using popular culture as a means to teach or occupy a child when their own personal identity has not fully formed can be harmful in the end. “Seventy-seven percent of children watch television every day”, most of these children are watching cartoons or youth oriented shows and the majority of them have themes of good verses evil with violent undertones. (Anderson) Outside the home and school, children are exposed to over avenues of pop culture that they may not have access to in their own homes. “Eighty percent of American boys play video games, eleven percent of the world’s computer users are under the age of 15”, and most kids have access to these mediums outside the home with little supervision. (Jenkins)
While there is a multitude of sub genre’s of popular culture, the five discussed here have the highest impact on today’s society and influence the identities of America’s children. Most American children can easily access music, movies, television, print media, and commercials for free or at a very low cost.
Music and moves have the largest audience in the American society. Find any shopping center from New York to Oklahoma or Washington, and it will have several different shops that cater to the music and movie industry. The broad based genre’s music and movies have to offer to the public is limitless and caters to every fad, trend, or guilty pleasure known to man. “American children spend an average of 4 hours of television a day, 28 hours per week watching TV; by age 18 they have watched 22,000 hours of TV – more time than they ever spent in the classroom.” (Jason)
Television and commercials are the second highest form of media used to transmit information to the general public. “While 18-49 year olds are the largest adult audience as shown by Nielsen rating system, the 3-9 year old age group is the second largest in the country.” Originally, commercial ads were introduced to inform the public of services, products, and general information; today we see these advertisements targeted directly toward specific groups or people and more popularly children. (Osborne)
Not until the Harry Potter craze of the late 1990’s have American children become influenced by mass numbers through literature. This medium is the smallest but is slowly gaining popularity among young people through series books such as Artemis Fowl and Lemony Snicket.
Many parents will admit to the use of music, television, or movies as a means to keep their children occupied. Today, it is much easier and convenient to allow a child to play video games, surf the internet or watch T.V. for hours on end and not have to worry about where their child is. However, what they are being exposed to can be more harmful then the world outside.
What are the negative uses of pop culture in today’s society? Sex, drugs and crime are three main topics parents should be made aware of. Sex is prominent in most forms of entertainment. Media no longer has harsh stipulations on what is acceptable or not. In the 1950’s parents on television had separate beds. Today, you can watch almost any prime time show and find some form of sex be it innuendos, the physical act or discussion about it. “Celebrities, a group of well known for their ‘idol’ status, use sex appeal to their advantage regardless of their base fan age range.” (Berger) Brittney Spears for example has a large pre-teen female following and despite this fact, she still showed up on MTV wearing a flesh colored skin-tight outfit that young girls wanted to wear after seeing it. Gaming magazines sold to children under the age of seventeen have advertisements for the video game Playboy Mansion. Most shockingly, pornographic material is easily found anywhere on the internet and despite parental blocks, it is still easily accessible by a child with limited computer experience.
Along with sex, drugs and crime are also saturated into current popular culture. The recent baseball steroid scandal was everywhere in the new in early 2005. Television and movies show drug use constantly. That 70’s Show is prime example. The main characters of the show are often found in the basement smoking marijuana every episode. There are currently four Law and Order shows on NBC, depicting all forms of criminal activity. Pool all of these topics together and parents find themselves overwhelmed by sheer saturation of negative behavior in modern pop culture.
The upside to all of this is media outlets and celebrities have begun to take responsibility for what is produced and shown to the public. The V chip is a television-programming device that can block certain shows with a specific maturity level from being show on a television set. Truth Ads and Anti-drug advertisements are constantly shown on T.V. during shows geared toward younger children. DARE programs are utilized in many school systems. Even celebrities such as Jessica Simpson are stepping up and giving young people role models to look up to without being overly sexual and proving that having sex before marriage is not practiced by everyone. These small steps go along way with children as they emulate much of what they see and hear through mass media and with the help of parental monitoring, the positive use of pop culture can help children shape their identities and who they want to be in the future.
“Roughly thirty percent of the American population were born between 1977 and 1997”, this has a significant impact on mass media advertising and targeting. While the population of youth in this country will continue to expand, parents will need to be cognizant of the new pop culture world around them. In order to maintain some semblance of control parents, teachers, and other family members will need to get involved with the daily activity of American’s youth. (Jenkins)
How can older people becoming involved? There are many ways; parents can block their televisions with the V-chip, initiate controls for website content, and ensure that all reading material accessible is age appropriate. The most important way, however, is to monitor what children are watching, reading, and doing on the internet.
Educators can become involved as well. “Thomas Edison predicted that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system”, was a very accurate statement as we all well know film is used in many classes such as history and health education. (Oppenheimer) Taking it a step further, as Gill said in her article Make it fun-Doh!; pop culture attracts young peopleâÂ?¦some professors are making their classes fun with pop icons and students are now taking certain subjects they would have otherwise not attempted. This is one positive aspect to the pop culture phenomenon. People are interested. If the content is age appropriate and can be utilized in a positive manner, it allows the parent or educator to be in control, while giving the youth a tantalizing lesson using familiar icons.
Obviously, teach children right from wrong, explain to them early in life that fiction is in fact fiction and most of what they see on T.V. or in the movies doesn’t happen in real life. Teach children and young that all popular ideas aren’t safe or acceptable. Make sure they are well rounded and educated beyond mass media outlets. Help them to form their identities by exposing them to a broad world of ideals, information, and cultures.
Popular culture isn’t a necessary evil in today’s society. It can be harnessed and used for good aside from the normal entertainment value it holds in every day life. ” Most Americans still share a strong sense that while we are different in some ways, in more ways we are joined by the shared responsibility of providing a good society for our children,” this extends to both shaping our children’s identities and helping them to realize what is acceptable in today’s world. Utilizing the positive side aspects of pop culture, can help teach today’s youth values and morals, this will give them the tools and the knowledge to stay away from the negative side of popular culture or at the very least take it at face value as a form of entertainment. Give children room to grow, but keep a tight grip on them until they are able to see the world as it truly is, flawed, ever changing, and still learning from its own mistakes. (Etzioni)
