Pop culture can be defined as the ‘it’ thing that’s popular at any particular point in time. It’s the here and now, and not thought of in terms of something that will hang around for years to come. I think of pop culture as what everyone is interested in at the moment. What’s popular today, may not be popular tomorrow, and probably won’t be popular next week. I use my teenagers to keep up with trends in pop culture. The things they’re wearing, the music they listen to, the shows they watch on television, and the technology they use, all give me insight into what’s popular now. They’re very much about the latest trends and wanting everything they see. To me, pop culture is seeing last year’s iPod thrown in a closet and no longer used because it isn’t the latest model. As pop culture relates to my children, there are times when it can be considered wasteful and expensive.
When I think of a pop culture artifact, I think of things that everyone had to have, but are now obsolete. An example of this in our family is the iPod. The picture above is from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/). I would estimate that we have no less than 9 iPods in our house, with only 3 currently in use. We started out with the iPod shuffle, and then as the models became more technologically advanced, we had to have them. Notice I say ‘we’, because I can’t blame all of this on the kids. I’m just as guilty of picking up the new iPod nano this past Christmas. It’s just so much easier to take to they gym!
Pop culture also plays a role in my career. I work in the transaction payment industry and competition between credit and debit card issuers is fierce. In order to stay ‘front of wallet’ for your customers, your product offering better be providing the features they’re interested in at the moment. Cash-back bonus offerings and competitive rates may have been popular years ago, but today’s customer has needs that constantly evolve. They want more in order to stay loyal to your brand. Advances such as the keychain card and the ability to charge purchases with your cell phone are being driven by customer demand. In a highly competitive industry, it’s easy to fall off the radar if you aren’t up to speed with pop culture. It’s what your customers want and if they don’t get it from you, they move on to someone else.
In conclusion, I think pop culture constantly challenges us to stay on top of things going on around us. I may not personally prefer to indulge in what’s hot at the moment, but I need to know what it is that my children are interested in. I think this enables my husband and me to balance the things our children are exposed to. It’s often said that the only thing constant is change, and I think that also applies to pop culture. The fact that things change so much is the very thing that keeps pop culture interesting.
When I think of a pop culture artifact, I think of things that everyone had to have, but are now obsolete. An example of this in our family is the iPod. The picture above is from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/). I would estimate that we have no less than 9 iPods in our house, with only 3 currently in use. We started out with the iPod shuffle, and then as the models became more technologically advanced, we had to have them. Notice I say ‘we’, because I can’t blame all of this on the kids. I’m just as guilty of picking up the new iPod nano this past Christmas. It’s just so much easier to take to they gym!
Pop culture also plays a role in my career. I work in the transaction payment industry and competition between credit and debit card issuers is fierce. In order to stay ‘front of wallet’ for your customers, your product offering better be providing the features they’re interested in at the moment. Cash-back bonus offerings and competitive rates may have been popular years ago, but today’s customer has needs that constantly evolve. They want more in order to stay loyal to your brand. Advances such as the keychain card and the ability to charge purchases with your cell phone are being driven by customer demand. In a highly competitive industry, it’s easy to fall off the radar if you aren’t up to speed with pop culture. It’s what your customers want and if they don’t get it from you, they move on to someone else.
In conclusion, I think pop culture constantly challenges us to stay on top of things going on around us. I may not personally prefer to indulge in what’s hot at the moment, but I need to know what it is that my children are interested in. I think this enables my husband and me to balance the things our children are exposed to. It’s often said that the only thing constant is change, and I think that also applies to pop culture. The fact that things change so much is the very thing that keeps pop culture interesting.
Images:
Apple iPod Nano. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2009, from http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/features.html
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