Popular Culture Artifact

Popular Culture, to me, is the fads, values, customs, and way of life of the majority of people.  It includes the television shows the masses of people are now watching, (reality shows, American Idol),  the vast amount of people that are now using the internet as a means of communicating, and the many social networks that people post their profiles too, to name a few.  Twitter is one of the newer communication websites; celebrities and even the President tweet.  While I have never done so myself, many people everywhere are now using this website to update the world on their everyday life.  Popular Culture is the here and now of what the majority of people believe is in style.  Some of the biggest influences on Popular Culture are the media, celebrities, and technology.

Understanding Popular Culture is relevant in a business environment also.  One reason why it has become so important to business is because so many companies are using the internet as a means of advertising.  These companies may have a website they use for promoting their business, but they may now also have a Facebook page, where people can "like" them and become their "friend."  Businesses have to try to keep up with Popular Culture in order to effectively promote their business.  For instance, many people now use the internet as a means of finding products or services to purchase and if your business is not found on the internet when they are looking, you could be losing sales to businesses that are.

An example of a Popular Culture artifact is social networking websites.  I chose this artifact because I believe it has become extremely popular in the world today.  While I find that the internet can be a  useful tool in business networking, communicating with friends that you may not otherwise be able to have contact with, or a way to meet new people, I feel as if some people have become consumed by it.  For instance, I have a Facebook account, which I only set up because someone was like, "You don't have a Facebook account?!", like I must be from the stone age or something.  So it seems to me that the new fad is to post your daily, personal life to a social networking site everyday.  For me, Facebook isn't something I have the time or inclination to keep up with so I haven't logged in in quite some time, but when I used to jump on there occasionally to see what was new, it seems as if many people spend all of their free time posting on their Facebook page.  It made me wonder why some people feel the need to let everyone know what they are doing all of the time.  It also seems as if many people are now putting the most private intimate details of their lives on these sites for the world to see.  I always wondered where people got so much free time that they could sit on the computer just to post to a website telling everyone what movie they watched or where they are going that day.  I guess the social networking sites are a Popular Culture artifact I will stay outside the loop on, because work, school, and children consume most of my time, and the little I have left, I do not want to spend in front of a computer screen.