Diffusion Of Popular Culture Essay

The Diffusion of Popular Culture

Many people have debated popular culture, and whether or not it is beneficial or harmful. The people who say it’s harmful feel that way because it has decimated a majority of different cultures. People who support popular culture are avid consumerism, and support business growth. Here’s a special look at popular culture in action, how it became so dominant, it’s benefits, and it’s dangers.

Every town has customs that originate from the local scene. These customs make up the town, sometimes defining the people in it, and what they do. While everything done in Camas may seem unique to the locals, Camas is not vastly different from any other town in the Pacific Northwest, or any small town in the United States. While language and foods may vary by region, the majority of Americans consume the same items in large amounts, this is because social media is a huge contributor to the spread of popular culture.

Teacher Cameron Long says,“ popular culture usually practiced by a large heterogenous group of people over large areas. Or in other words, popular culture is when diverse groups do the same thing.” Explained in detail, a student at Camas sees that Damian Lillard has a new pair of Lillard's’ out. Damian Lillard is their favorite basketball

player. Excited, they get his new shoes. Their friends see them, they like them, they get them. Meanwhile a kid in a completely different town pays money for them because Dame is his/her favorite player as well. This is hierarchical diffusion.
Hierarchical diffusion states that the people at the top of the social ladder influence what people on the steps down say, listen to, eat, drink, and buy. Or in Mr. Long’s words,”Hierarchical diffusion is when a cool person does something so the rest of us want to do it as well. The problem with hierarchical diffusion and popular culture is that it’s expensive, and promotes a culture of “infinite consumerism.”
Popular culture, encourages people to keep purchasing, and this mindset of always having to own the new item is detrimental to the environment.

For example, it’s now the rage to have an electric car that runs only on battery. However, the battery is powered by Lithium, which is a rare earth metal. Lithium is produced by pumping underground salt water to the surface and allowing it to evaporate in big pans. Chile’s natural habitat is being destroyed, so that here in the United States, we can have an “environment friendly car.” In addition, the cost of retaining a beautiful new Tesla that popular culture makes everyone want, an underpaid child in Congo has to mine enough lithium to power the

car.
While popular culture can have negative environmental consequences, it can also be beneficial to America. When everyone wants the new clothing item or a pair of Lebron’s, people will keep spending; therefore, pouring money into businesses and huge chains like Nike. Popular culture also has a huge impact on the world because it makes the world more uniform throughout. A person can go to China and get food at the exact same fast food places as in Camas, Washington. This benefits America because they have a huge say in what happens around the world. To wrap up, popular culture is as beneficial as it is detrimental because everything marketed as good for the environment in one location is can be catastrophic for natural habitat and culture in other geographic places. Popular culture is most always extremely beneficial to the people in the countries who control it, but on the contrary it is usually very destructive to the people in the less developed countries who have to break their fingers and backs making the items that countries like America take for granted.