Domination and Resistance of Culture

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When people think about culture, we tend to think of art, literature. Possibly even the identity of a person through their language, common practices, rituals and traditions. According to Rivkin and Ryan (2004), culture is composed of domination and resistance (p. 1233). They also view subculture as having double connotation (p. 1259). In other words, culture and subculture has the power to rule over others or resist power and go against the flow respectively. In a capitalistic society, the ruling class has more power and resources over the working class. They generate their own ideas and values into the norm and are accepted by the working class/society. It works like a pyramid. Power is not distributed evenly to members in society. It is granted to individuals that are at the top of the pyramid. The further you are from the apex, the weaker you become. If we look at the structure of an organization or club, we know that the president has the authority to control, and below president are the vice president, then the secretary, then the treasure and so on. Anyone subsequent to the president has reduced power. People visually perceive media as a form of domination. Being owned by immensely colossal corporations, the media industry avails in the reproduction of the social system by permitting certain images and conceptions accessible to society (Rivkin and Ryan, 2004). While people are setting trends and norms, there are others that will resist to norms. This is known as subculture. It appears that subculture has developed through resistance of the standard styles of fashion and music which led to punk and goth in the 1970’s. “Subcultures represent 'noise': interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenom...

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...t was introduced. It is greatly influential in how society corresponds to one another. People should realize how technology negatively affects them so that they can use it efficiently. There are numerous beneficial ways of using technology. Schools can utilize gadgets as a learning tool to teach and encourage students to use programs. People should go out to meet instead of meeting online to improve social skills. Even though technology has flaws; it offers access to knowledge to everyone quicker than ever experienced. If technology is used responsibly, not only will it ensure that people will not lack the skills needed for critical thinking and reasoning, but it will also be used for that purpose. Technology will become more intricate in the years to come. This means there are many who will use it responsibly to further their horizon in improving technology itself.

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