Culture I Want To Be A Part Of

Social Culture

School Culture

Family Culture

Media Culture

Definition of "media culture": Mass Media and Media Culture refers collectively to all media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication.

My definition of "media culture": Media culture is huge in today's society. We are all constantly being stimulated by social media outlets, and new outlets. Because of this, we are all receiving similar information regarding the world around us, which is our media culture. It is part of our culture to have a Facebook, twitter, pinterest etc... it's a way of getting news and hearing stories that reach the masses that comprises media culture. I think Media culture is what helps to create pop culture and mass culture... we're all receiving the same messages through our media culture, in turn creating our trends and what the mass culture are into.

Mass Culture

- Defintion of "mass culture": Mass culture is the set of ideas and values that develop from a common exposure to the same media, news sources, music, and art. Mass culture is broadcast or otherwise distributed to individuals instead of arising from their day-to-day interactions with each other. Thus, mass culture generally lacks the unique content of local communities and regional cultures.

- Definition of "mass culture": From what I can understand, mass culture is similar to pop culture, in that it's what the masses are into currently. However, unlike pop culture which is comprised of people's favorite entertainment like movies and music and such, mass culture is more like the every day things that people involve themselves with. They're fads. Examples are the obsession with theme parks, tv dinners, rubix cubes, and big 80's hair. Some may call these things superficial, but they seem to be popular with the masses!

Popular Culture

- Definition of "popular culture" - Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes,images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society. Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumbed-down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted.

- My definition of "popular culture" - To me, popular culture is the array of entertainment and trends that society currently follows. All the music genres, movies, television shows, words etc that are currently popular with the majority of people. It's a culture that people can become a part of or turn away from, unlike the culture you are born into which is harder to change. If culture is defined by the kind of music, beliefs, dress etc of a group of people, then popular culture is the music, beliefs, dress etc that is popular with the masses as of current.

Elite Culture

- Definition of "elite culture": A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status. The best or most skilled members of a group.

- My definition of "elite culture": When I think of elite culture, I think of high class, and high society. The best of the best. I think of someone who graduated from Harvard, or who is the CEO of a company, or lives in the Hampton's. They have a lot of money, a lot of intelligence, or a lot of status. I can't help but think of snobbiness when I think of elite culture, as if these people believe they're better than the mass culture. Obviously this isn't all true, but the first word that still comes to mind for me is snob.

Culture

- Defition of "culture": The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group.

- My definition of "culture": Culture to me is a certain group of people's shared language, religion, tradition, and beliefs. Generally, I would say you are a part of the same culture as someone if you have many similarities to them. Of course, you can be part of many cultures that all overlap. Say, my friend and I are part of the same American culture because we eat fast food, arevery into out technologies, and speak english. However we can also be part of separate cultures that make us different as well. I am a part of Jewish culture, while she is a part of Persian culture. I almost think of culture as being a bunch of Venn Diagrams, overlapping to create unique people that are part of many different cultures.

Christians protect Muslims during prayer in Cairo, Egypt.

This picture was the most powerful to me for many reasons. First, it's very visually appealing. The lights in the background, all of the colors, and the sea of people are all very beautiful and intriguing. Second, the small yet powerful detail of the men holding hands at the foreground of the shot, gives an overall loving and peaceful feeling to the picture. However, what I found to be the most powerful about this image, was the caption that comes along with it. "Christians protect Muslims during prayer in Cairo, Egypt." How often are you going to hear that? It was a beautiful statement to me. It's almost surreal, to see two groups of people with different religious views acting compassionately towards each other, for just a moment. If that's not powerful, then I'm not sure what is. This image to me, represents a step in the right direction for peace in this world.

Olivia in Ten

WORD ME

The Day I Lost My Life (or My iPhone)

The Day I Lost My Life (or My iPhone)

"I have realized that technology is no longer something we use; technology is a part of who we are." - Maurilio Amorim



I find the technology that we use in our everyday lives to have a kind of irony to them. We create this invisible information inside all of our little devices (our phones, computers, cameras etc) that are supposed to make our lives easier. And then... we lose them, and the world is suddenly at a standstill. All of this data that we once lived without, created, and then lost, without it ever even being tangible, instantly seems to rule our lives the moment it's gone. The reason I bring up this con of technology is because a few weeks ago, I too became the victim of an iPhone crisis. My iPhone wasn't connecting to the newtwork, and even worse, my data wouldn't back up to my iCloud (the cyber version of Olivia), and so I didn't want to get it replaced in fear of losing all of that useless data that I had self created, and lived completely fine without just months before. I suddenly felt isolated. Not only did I have the fear of losing my most prized data, I also had lost my sixth sense - my ability to communicate with others through text messaging. I literally tossed and turned that entire night with the fear of losing my 4.5 x 2.31 inch, 4.9 ounce life. The thing about technology that sucks the most? The ability to lose our entire lives within a tiny little device. Submitted with undying love for my iPhone...

It's like you're screaming...

The music video for "We Found Love" by Rihanna is probably the only music video I've ever given a second thought. I'm terribly sick of the song that I once loved, but the music video remains a favorite of mine. I love it because it's the definition of "finding love". The video depicts the intense highs that love brings, as well as the intense lows, with bright colors, edgy topics, racy shots and lots of bright lights and colors. I could watch this music video so many times, with the sound muted of course!

"I'll protect you, Daddy"

The movie "Crash" is one of my favorite movies for so many reasons. Of course I love it most for the content. The issues of dealing with diversity and people that are different to ourselves fascinates me, because I love to study the way we interact with each other. I also love how this movie starts and ends at the same point, as if to represent that the issue of prejudice and racism is a vicious, never ending cycle that is so hard to break. The filmography in this movie is also fantastic, with choppy clips and intense closeups, as well as a fantastic soundtrack. Overall I think this movie is brilliant, and one I could watch over and over again and never stop getting something out of it.