Popular culture is an item, tangible or intangible, that is
recognized by most of the population. Popular culture is important to people
because it is a way for them to identify and belong to society. From childhood,
we have things that mean something to us. For me, it was My Little Pony,
Barbie, Popples, and Strawberry Shortcake toys; Backstreet Boys, NSync, and
Eminem music; chatrooms; Stand by Me, Rudy, and Neverending Story movies;
X-Men, Archie, and Flinstone’s comics; Flinstone’s, Jetson’s, and Punky
Brewster TV shows.
I can see an understanding of popular culture important in a
business environment if someone is marketing an item or teaching. Marketers
would need to know how to promote the product to people in order for them to
want to buy the product. Teaching is also the same concept, teachers would want
to have an understanding of popular culture to identify with the students which
would help them connect and teach better. My present career is nonexistent, I
am a stay-at-home mom right now so the only way that popular culture applies to
that is what my kids are going to want for their birthdays and Christmas. My
future career is in accounting. An understanding of pop culture is important to
accounting because an accountant needs to be current on the latest or most
popular accounting technology.
An example of a pop
culture artifact would be comic books. Comic books have been around for many
years and continues to go strong today. I chose comic books for the example
because it is something that I remember wanting when we would go to the store
and my children are interested in as well. Comic books are so big that they
have multiple comic store locations across the world and they even have their
own “holiday” known as Free Comic Book Day.
