The Tight Grip of Pop Culture + Me

Pop culture serves as the guilty pleasure of our lives, whether we truly realize it or not. Everywhere we go in our daily lives we are bombarded with the influences of pop culture; this can appear in the form of magazines, commercials, billboards, everyday conversation, even cars or buildings themselves!

I personally am no stranger to the vice grip that is the allure of pop culture. My personal weakness comes in the form of popular social media apps (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) and also video apps (YouTube or Snapchat). I really do not understand what it is about pop culture that makes me feel like I cannot go two whole hours without having to check in on what celebrity just went to jail or who is getting a divorce from who. My biggest guilty pleasure comes from Snapchat news stories, which are basically the equivalent of tabloids that can only be viewed on your phone for twenty-four hours at a time. The catchy music, colorful words, and embarrassing celebrity photos make these stories irresistible, not to mention an amazing distraction from real life problems.

Also, I am no stranger to YouTube; I am currently subscribed to twenty different channels and not a night goes by in which I do not watch some number of videos prior to going to sleep. Comedy videos, gaming videos, even cooking videos all fall under pop culture influences that I allow into my life. I just cannot resist the escape this website provides to its viewers.

Ultimately, I feel that pop culture influences are primarily used as a distraction for people who just want to escape from whatever they might be dealing with at that moment in their life. It provides a time for them to sit back and realize, “maybe things are not as bad as I thought they were.” Pop culture provides the coveted escape from everyday life that everyone desires.