What is mass culture? This is music pouring from popular radio stations; These are books by contemporary authors; This is the clothes of fashion designers. The list, of course, is far from complete.
If you give definitions, mass culture is a culture generated by technological progress at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, oriented towards the so-called mass society - a society whose individual elements have almost lost their individuality, including in the choice of consumer products (cultural, social, economic). This concept is characterized by averaging, which applies both to the objects and phenomena of this type of culture, and to the people for whom they are intended.
Mass Culture: Pros and Cons
So, let's start with the pros.
One of the advantages of mass culture is its accessibility. There are many sources of information: from magazines to the Internet - just choose.
Active development of technology and the introduction of new technologies.
And, of course, popular culture is a significant reduction or complete absence of censorship in the media, and therefore problems that occur in the world and society may be accessible to a wide audience.
Unfortunately, there are more cons.
Accessibility has caused the so-called “sexual dominance”. Children under 10 years old already know what sex is. In middle-school students, interest often turns into active actions, which contributes to the spread of cases of early pregnancy, as well as pedophilia.
The obvious cultural degradation of society. For example, classical works - musical, literary, artistic - young people absolutely do not recognize. The formation of their worldview is influenced by conveyor films of Hollywood, rap, glossy magazines and low-grade romance novels and detective stories. It is clear that such products of mass culture determine the consumer attitude to life. A social group called “majors” has gained popularity among young people. As a rule, these are high school students and students spending parental money on various kinds of entertainment (like expensive cars or nightclubs).
In addition to ubiquitous consumerism, people become incapable of simple analytical activity. They turn into a gray and faceless mass that believes in what they are told by TV presenters, politicians, sellers, etc.
The dominance of the Internet reduces the importance of live communication. And if mass culture of the 20th century still assumed direct human interaction, today, in the 21st century, various social networks have become the main habitat of a large number of people. Yes, it became important only the number of "likes" and positive comments under the photos. At the same time, the level of literacy in these same comments leaves much to be desired.
In general, of course, it is obvious that popular culture carries more negative than positive. On the other hand, I want to recall the pearls of Soviet and European cinema that the 20th century gave us (films by Chaplin, Hitchcock, Ryazanov), many talented writers (Grossman, Bulgakov, Platonov), magnificent composers (Tariverdiev, Pakhmutova, Glier). Therefore, popular culture is not always bad, you just need to be able to find truly good and worthy things in a sea of husks.