Pop culture is a lot of things, but everyone can pinpoint a specific moment in the history of entertainment when it was peaking. Whether we discuss the trilogy of the Rolling Stones in 1965, the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat from around 1984, or the Titanic buzz in 1997, these moments contributed to the emerging content creation, as movies, songs, and creators were the centerpieces of everyone’s lives.

These highlights have contributed to today’s society and culture trends, only that they’re going at a faster pace than before. Social media has made it easy and beneficial for these industries to adopt new products and services to serve customers’ demand for the most recent movements.

Considering this dynamic, we’re wondering if pop culture is still what it used to be in the old days and if new generations will reshape what it means for artists, users, and companies to express themselves. Let’s do a brief analysis.

What Exactly Is Pop Culture?

Pop culture is everything that surrounds the fame of sectors like music, art, dance, or television. Pop culture has been essential since the beginning of the 21st century due to the increasing use of the internet.

There are numerous definitions of this movement. However, we can bring it down to famous pieces of media that resulted in considerable fanbases. Game of Thrones, Beyoncé, and the resurrection of Harry Potter are important players on the internet. People attend massive GOT conventions, the BeyHive community is loyal to the singer, and Potterheads have entire collections with all the characters from the film series.

Pop culture is also about specific moments in media, including Lady Gaga’s meat dress, or advertising on the required but awesome stadium bags and backpacks at NFL games. Therefore, in a way, it might not be about the creator but the people’s interpretations and interests. That’s why pop culture changes in the age of social media.

What is pop culture to Gen Z?

Gen Z is one of the most creative and fast learners of all generations. As seen on social media, one of their most prominent talents is to reinterpret old fashion, music, and art to new likings. However, the interest in representation and diversity is also unique to Gen Z and pop culture.

Young people value content that resonates with their lives and concerns, from music to movies. They want to see the raw representation of a feeling, problem, or situation on screen, whereas millennials would instead consume a more polished form of the same concept.

That’s what sets artists to tackle these ideas, too. Billie Eilish talks about fame and mental health, while Lil Nas X has a unique yet straightforward approach to genres and conventional boundaries. These are only some of the most prominent names in pop culture now, but there are many other artists who contribute to such a movement.

Gen Z and activism

Activism is important in society because it pushes beyond the regular boundaries to the problems we face daily. While activism has been done for what feels like forever, Gen Z used the power of technology to efficiently spread awareness on issues like human rights and environmental concerns.

Young people are making activism better because they can change ideas even through entertainment pieces, such as memes, one of the easiest ways to get someone’s attention while tackling a serious subject. This non-traditional activism strategy allows communities to bond better

Moreover, the introduction of social media makes it easy for ideas to transcend cultures, as anyone usually understands cultural memes despite language. Hence, memes open people’s eyes to marginalised groups and contribute to strengthening a collective identity.

So, where’s the fun in this?

Another less-talked-about thing about Gen Z is they’re prone to becoming desensitised to tragic events as they’ve been exposed to certain world-changing events. That’s why it may be easier for them to tackle darker topics or even make jokes about them, which can encourage open discourse.

Unfortunately, normalising this can cause a lack of emotional responsiveness. Although desensitisation can be used as a form of therapy to unlearn fears or anxieties, researchers are interested in whether exposure to traumatic events like violence can lead to a lack of emotions when exposed to real-life events.

Overall, what’s sure is that social media has had a massive impact on how people react to real-life events. Their daily exposure to certain media pieces can indeed cause several issues to their cognitive stability. But that depends on the algorithm as well.

Is the internet still a big, universal thing?

The thing with the current pop culture is that it may be influenced based on the algorithm. Hence, every user can craft their own type of content on any social media platform based on what they interact with. This allows people to see only relevant media in accordance with their hobbies and lifestyles, which are considerably different from others.

Hence, someone may only be interested in photography, so the algorithm rarely recommends anything else (maybe other than ads) to their account, so they might not be wary of what happens beyond the algorithm. So, they might be prone to being biased.

While this seems silly, the issue can cause serious problems, especially when we’re talking about elections in a country. And since every platform might have a different algorithm science, bad actors might take advantage of the people targeted to reach their goal faster. For example,

Facebook prioritises timing, while Instagram focuses on the people who follow and user activity. So, what you see on social media is truly a curated content creation, and reaching an objective side of things will always take more than the regular user is used to.

What do you think about the new pop culture?

Pop culture is vital to societies, offering a new perspective on communities and everyday things. On the other hand, pop culture pushes the barriers of conformity and challenges the user’s mind with new ideas from music, movies, and social media.

Some of the most important themes of Gen Z’s pop culture include a varied array of issues such as identity, human rights, and the environment.