Is mass culture good or evil?

What is a mass culture? It's music pouring from popular radio stations; These are the books of modern authors; This is fashion designers' clothes. The list, of course, is far from complete.

If we define, mass culture is a culture engendered by technological progress at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, oriented toward the so-called mass society, a society whose individual elements have almost lost their individuality, including the choice of consumer products (cultural, social, Economic). This concept is characterized by averaging, which refers both to the objects and phenomena of this type of culture, and to the people for whom they are intended.

Mass culture: the pros and cons

So, let's start with the pluses.

One of the merits of mass culture is its universal access. Sources of information are many: from magazines to the Internet - just choose.

Active development of technology and introduction of new technologies.

And, of course, mass culture is a significant reduction or total absence of censorship in the media, and therefore a wide audience can be accessed by problems that occur in the world and society.

Unfortunately, unfortunately, more.

Accessibility was the cause of the so-called "sexual dominance". Children under 10 years already know what sex is. In middle-class students, interest often turns into active action, which contributes to the spread of early pregnancy, as well as pedophilia.

Cultural degradation of society is obvious. For example, classical works - musical, literary, artistic - young people absolutely do not recognize. The formation of their worldview is influenced by conveyor Hollywood films, rap, glossy magazines and low-grade love novels and detectives. It is clear that such products of mass culture determine the consumer attitude to life. Among the youth, a social group called "majors" has gained popularity. As a rule, these are high school students and students who spend money on various kinds of entertainment (like expensive cars or nightclubs).

In addition to ubiquitous consumerism, people become incapable of simple analytical activities. They turn into a gray and faceless mass that believes what they say from the TV presenter, politicians, vendors, and so on.

The dominance of the Internet reduces the importance of live communication. And if the mass culture of the 20th century still implied direct human interaction, today, in the 21st century, various social networks have become the main habitat for 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 very comments leaves much to be desired.

In general, of course, it is obvious that mass 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 ( Chaplin, Hitchcock, Ryazanov), many talented writers (Grossman, Bulgakov, Platonov), magnificent composers (Tariverdiev, Pakhmutova, Gliere). Therefore, mass culture is not always bad, you just need to be able to find really good and decent things in the sea of husks.