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Reflection on Daily Culture Athabasca University

Culture is viewed as ‘the whole way of life’ Due to globalization, the boundaries between lower class and middle-class cultures appear to be blurring and even disappearing. It has the relevance to everyday life and reality which give meaning to human existence.

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Popular culture has the power to transform the ancient beliefs into a relevant, contemporary discipline. It is a tool that higher-ranking people in a society and elites generally use to control the people below them in society. It has tangible elements of culture like folk arts, fashion, games, music, television, internet that make life enjoyable. Popular culture is a powerful and dynamic force constantly changing, creating many more opportunities by becoming homogenized or hybridized especially with the ease of communications through the internet.

To determine whether an activity is popular culture or not is often unclear. For instance, marriages and live in relationships. Few decades ago, marriages were solemnized by family relationships. It was considered as the mutual understanding not only between bride and groom but also between two families, two societies. But now-a-day, individuals irrespective of knowing each other’s culture, society; proceed ahead with marriage which later is the main cause of misunderstanding. Due to which the divorce rate is higher, and they are exponentially rising. Adding one more step to this, in this era, individuals have decided to live together before marriages so that, they can decide whether they are interested in spending their whole life with that person or not. This has given a boost to ‘live-in -relationship’ concept among the youth. The influence of popular culture can be far reaching and can set in motion new actions and considerations among future generations. The concept of ‘live-in relationships’ gained popularity but became the matter of concern when children are born in these relationships. The questions like whose responsibility is to take care of the child when couple is no more Interested in each other; gave populism to another concept of ‘Single mothers. It is considered as the dark side of privatizing their social experience, mocked by their peers and face identity issues

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as well as racial barriers in the society. Each generation modifies and makes popular culture its own, then passes it on to the next generation to continue the process. With modernization, it can eliminate or cross social barriers.

Over time the popular gym culture has fascinated the youngsters. The ancient practice of running and exercising in open grounds, playing extensive energy games like football or hockey is overshadowed by gyms. With the times of arena, open playgrounds have been replaced by stadiums, auditoriums and amphitheaters. The focus of popular culture is commercialized as business rather than enjoyment. it is marketed for the sole purpose of making profits and making enormous sums of money off the backs of youth.

Thus, the influence of globalization is particularly noticeable among young people. They seem to be more receptive to foreign influences from fashion to mobile models; movies to Xbox games, sports to exercising in gym and of course in music. Big business houses, multinational companies recognize this power and gear their advertisements to target the youth and keep modifying the culture industry to cater youth needs and desires. This advocates that popular culture is dynamic moreover it is also purposeful and interminable. Anthropologists explore to explain the reflection of popular culture on human experience and investigated its effects on political environment, cultural resistances, religious, heritage and social relations. With studies and observation; considering various practical examples,

Anthropologists have increasingly experienced the influence of television, radio, and even the Internet in cultures. They realized that the media is diffusing to virtually every corner of

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the world which is becoming people’s everyday lives and routine, and the messages or news broadcasted on them is absorbed and interpreted by the masses as a social expression affecting developed to developing nations. The social media is playing with people’s minds and has the tendency to change the thinking, beliefs and ideology of local masses.

Popular culture is not stagnant and develops with the content of socio-economic trends in the country. The serious gaps between the generation’s ideology has often criticized the popularity of pop culture. Mass media is considered as a major cause of homogenization of a global popular culture.

The escapist nature of media is also considered emotionally and intellectually damaging, limiting our ability to cope with reality (Gans,1974) and turning us into passive consumers (Horkheimer and Aderno,1992). Take for instance, the fashion industry. Although true, the young people follow what their fashion gurus are promoting, which indeed is emphasizing the idea of model looks in every youngster. Their education, employment, success main elements of comfortable future are dramatically affected. They infinitely absorb the new popular culture, by adapting its new ideas, Philosophers, behaviours and thus changing their lifestyles. These effects appeal to the masses and leave little room for individualism. Therefore, the popular culture has often been called the “voice of the people '' as the masses have power to accept or reject the university and continuity of its identities as factors. “Orkut” is an example of this as its demise is due to the widespread rejection or disinterest of masses. In the last decade, Orkut was a popular online virtual community application connecting masses from different countries together. However, the social networking service Facebook created disinterest of the masses in Orkut due

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to its much-advanced features and concepts. This widespread rejection of Orkut led to its departure from every user's life. Nowadays, more advanced social media websites or applications alike Instagram, Twitter or WhatsApp have taken the ideology of everyone and challenged the different motions of society.

The community centre/recreational culture is now declining, the youth are turning away from physical activities and are more attracted to shopping malls, where they spend their social time and find all the new fashion ethics under one roof. Moreover, they are turning to other forms of shopping, especially online shopping; where companies offer more discounted prices to attract and lure them to spend more money. The commonization of online shopping is encouraged by multinational companies by offering attractive buying schemes. Thus, due to urbanization, globalization of media and communications it resulted in the homogenization of popular culture and in fact, it loses the unique global elements of local popular culture that are the part of their culture, heritage, and identity.

References Fedorak, S. (2009). Pop culture: the culture of everyday life. Toronto: University of Toronto Press....