Pop Culture And Its Influence On Society
The Damaging Affects of Pop Culture
Pop culture influences many teenagers through music, magazines, movies, and other sources of entertainment. Although some try to stray away from what is popular, pop culture is still seen almost everywhere. The way pop culture is detrimental to society can be seen through the evidence of the amount of individuals suffering from eating disorders, the high crime and drug rate, and the acts of sexual promiscuity outside the bonds of marriage.
In adolescent culture it is depressingly common to see one suffering or recovering from an eating disorder. Although much of society seems to not notice the extent of these eating disorders because of the lack of usualness, many people, specifically women, are plagued by this self-image that one needs to be extremely thin to become attractive. Pop culture has warped the self-image of others by the way individuals are portrayed in movies, magazines, fashion shows, and other forms of entertainment. Pop culture uses celebrities and other famous individuals to help spread the message of their ideal woman that they see as fit and attractive. The effects on self-image are not as easily seen because, “Americans are willing to follow the instructions of the celebrity blindly” (Stevens 304). Many young teenagers suffer with eating disorders trying and fulfill this ideal body type that has been demonstrated to them in so many ways. The way pop culture has changed the self-perception of what the ideal body type ought to be is harmful to society because it is extremely hard to achieve and the health risks attached to it are phenomenal as displayed by the many people suffering from eating disorders trying to match what pop culture says.
Not only is the amount of individuals with eating disorders the fault of pop culture, but also the high crime and drug rate is another negative affect on society. One may argue that drugs and violence have always existed but they are on the rise since pop culture influences the crime rate and drug rate highly through the veneration of it in music, video games, and Hollywood movies. Using famous people that commit crimes and think highly of themselves for doing so in music causes others to preform the same acts because they see it as a way of acceptance toward society. All three of these “dumbs us down and makes us more likely to tolerate acts of violence if not to commit them ourselves” (Graff 275). For example, in the show Breaking Bad a chemistry teacher starts a meth lab to help support his family and it is seen acceptable if for a good cause. Although he starts a meth lab for a good cause, many individuals may start doing immortal acts and justify their actions because it is a good cause. Due to the inescapable prevalence of drugs and crime that are seen as acceptable and common, it changes the mindset of the individual even to the point of one preforming these acts. For example in one of the more popular video games asks the player “what you would do if your grandmother ordered you to kill someone” (Bissell 357). By playing these violent games one begins to believe that it is permissible to kill others. This constant state of being surrounded by such evils begins to damage the individual causing a serious shift in many people’s moral conscience.
Another action other than drugs and crime that is caused by society is sexual activity outside marriage. Sexuality is highly promoted by media and desensitizes minds into believing that sex is not sacred enough to wait for until marriage. This causes a problem for the young generations because having sexual intercourse can have negative effects on them such as feeling a false sense of love, giving away apart of themselves, and the possibility of an early pregnancy. Pop culture also has many moneymaking advantages to promoting sex since “sex does sell” (Johnson 293). The more individuals that preform these actions, the more people will act upon it due to peer pressure. With the easy excess to pornography and nudity all over movies and magazines, individuals become more prone to fall into erotic acts before marriage. Pop culture damages society since it desensitizes individuals to preform sexual actions that may be harmful outside of marriage.
Although pop culture is everywhere it is detrimental to society. This can be seen in a variety of ways like the amount of individuals that are suffering or recovering from an eating disorder, the high crime and drug abuse rates, and also the amount of sexual activity that happens prior to marriage. Pop culture has damaged the self-image of many people by using celebrities, and the results being many individuals suffering from an eating disorder. Also, the high crime and drug rates are caused by the pop culture music, videos and Hollywood movies since there is such an enormous amount of violence. Not only is crime and drug usages caused by the constant prevalence of violence, but also pop culture influences sexual activities outside of marriage. All of these alone, and even worse together, are harmful because they hurt the people involved and thus I present my point that pop culture has a negative affect on society.
