Imani Simmons

Apollo

Mr. Wimmer

September 18th, 2023

Childhood Impact

Mass Culture. The standard cultural product of a period. It is defined and produced by

the corporations who push it towards us, and people spread it around. Mass culture is difficult to

resist as it is powered and produced by industrial companies to get people involved. Each

generation develops socially by ways of pop culture. I grew up in 2006. Mass culture and pop

Culture from the 2000s shaped me into who I am today. And It’s not just me. It can

psychologically have an effect on kids and those growing up. The spreading of pop culture is

done by consuming media, socialization, and even dictated by geographical area.

A formative experience, a time, or an experience, these experiences have significant and

lasting influences on a person's character and attitude. It describes and shapes who you are in

your adolescence. These experiences have an accurate prediction of where one will end up in

their adult life. This period in kids is from 0-8 years old, when neurological development is the

fastest (Li). Formative experiences can be daily family meals and socialization with others. As a

kid, I spent my formative years glued to a TV screen because it was all I could do. I experienced

childhood loneliness, which is when children lack those formative experiences. So, I turned to

pop culture and cartoons. It was the dynamic I grew up in. Music, art, literature, fashion, dance,

and film are all classified as pop culture subcategories. The word or phrase has numerous

definitions. One is that pop culture can be commercial objects produced for mass consumption

by non-discriminating consumers. In this definition, popular culture is a tool used by the elites to

suppress or take advantage of the masses (Storey). Another is that users are free to embrace

some manufactured content, alter it for their use, or reject it entirely and create their own.”

(Crossman). In my childhood, this applied to me the most. I was interested in pop culture without
noticing. But not into all aspects of it, which is normal. In ways, I wasn’t completely in mass

culture. I was a bit on the outskirts. I never had the latest toys that everyone had. Like Hex

Bugs, a fushigi magic gravity ball, and Beyblades. I did own bakugans, Pokemon cards, and

others though. I fluctuated in and out. Music was a big thing for me as a kid. I loved Lady Gaga’s

2009 MTV VMA performance. It was huge to me. I knew about all the new Batman movies.

Within the same year, I was obsessed with Batman: Arkham Asylum when it dropped (2009).

These events were my formative experiences, as I didn’t grow up talking to other kids. I had to

stay inside. Whatever was on TV was what I absorbed. Pop culture did provide me with a role

model, and taught me positive behavior, in a way, watching TV had a positive impact on me,

psychologically.

Video games were a big part of my life, like almost any other kid. While I spent my time

mostly watching other’s plays, I still enjoyed all the colors, the movement, and the characters. It

was mesmerizing to my kid brain, as TV was. I grew up a Nintendo and X-box kid. We had no

Sega game systems or anything. Video games were an enormous part of pop culture. Super

Mario Galaxy (2007), Super Mario Sunshine (2002), Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Call of

Duty, were some of my favorites. Videogames introduced me to a world of free will, and as a

kid, I loved to get lost in them. I still do now. Yet not every game has weighed the same in

society. In the 70s, video games were often the punchline of many jokes, being seen as nerdy

and geeky. But the 2000s were able to change that slightly. This is because the technology was

upgrading, and with that, pop culture too. However, too many video games can lead to poor

social skills, time away from family, school work, and other hobbies, lower grades, and

aggressive thoughts and behaviors (Healthcare of Utah). But psychologically, it can be used to

help improve test scores, teach life and job skills, improve brain function, and encourage

physical exercise. But in a pop culture way, video games bring people together and form

communities. Some games that influenced pop culture are Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil,

Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, GTA, The Sims, and more (Fire). These games or
franchises are only a handful of pop culture-shifting examples, but these games helped craft

society and culture, which is why they are in such high regard. Like Final Fantasy VII, the outing

that put Sony’s award-winning franchise on the map, and perfectly captured the essence of the

story, graphics, and characters. The sims especially as it’s a life simulator. When the original

game was released in 2000, it became an instant success and sold over 16 million units, which

was 100x the initial projections. Since then, the game is still in its 4th game phase and is still

churning out new content. It brings people together with multiple players and has benefits to it.

There was never a moment where I wasn’t glued to the TV screen. Cartoons were a

massive part of my childhood. Scooby-Doo, Courage the Cowardly Dog Chowder, i-Carly. As

my parents worked and my brother was off at school or with friends, the TV kept me company.

That was the beginning of mass culture creeping into my life. Cartoon network was popular at

the time, and cartoons were what every kid watched. Down to the very shows. For cartoons, the

children defined what was popular and what the culture of cartoons was. The main target was

not Infants, as those under one year of age look at television less than 10 percent of the time

they are within sight of a secondary activity. This is due to infants not understanding what’s

going on, only motion captures their attention. The level of looking steadily increases with age

until it reaches a level of about 80 percent in late childhood, after which point it declines to about

60 percent during adulthood (Children's Attention to Television). But there were cartoons that I

loved that weren’t considered pop culture or mainstream. So while I fit within the culture, I also

stuck out at the time. Beyblade (2001), The Boondocks (2005), The Misadventures of Flapjack

(2008). These were shows that weren’t talked about much nor aired too often, as the companies

focused mainly on the younger kids. This is where John Storey’s six different definitions of

popular culture come in. Pop culture can be defined as commercial objects that are produced

for mass consumption by non-discriminating consumers. In this definition, popular culture is a

tool used by the elites to suppress or take advantage of the masses (Storey). Corporations ran

TV and cartoons, which at the time, was fine with kids. As it didn’t affect them that much. Most
shows kids that aired had good morals for kids to cling to. Like Yo Gabba Gabba, that had

nothing but good morals. But as the older kids got older, the market for shows did tend to get a

little bit more chaotic. Like my old favorite, Destroy Build Destroy. Which was filled with

explosions and semi-violent behavior but did inspire me to build things as a kid. This is what pop

culture does, it inspires as well. Though not all TV has positive impacts, studies show that TV

can affect a child’s aggression (AACAP). But culturally, just like video games, they have the

power to bring people together.

Mass culture, known as pop culture, is a thing that affects all kids and people. It can

influence others and feed opinions by ways of media. The 2000s were changing times as the

uprise of technology came in. Therefore, pop culture was seriously on the incline. When growing

up in changing times, mass culture can affect any kid out in society and influence their

childhood, as it did me. Each era is created socially by ways of pop culture. It can

psychologically have an impact on kids and those developing. It’s the media they consume,

socialization, and even their geographical area. But who defines mass culture? Industrial

companies power pop culture. It gets people involved. Video game companies, toy companies,

and corporations on TV make these products, and we as a society spread it around and make it

big. This is how each generation develops socially by ways of pop culture. But how do we, as

humans, unbiasedly judge where we fall within or even outside of pop culture? It’s simple. One

needs to step back and evaluate. Sociology and psychology are the roots of pop culture, as

stated previously. Pop culture is considered a prominent source of social norms. This is why

some events hold more of a social significance than others. It takes looking at and evaluating

the general public to see where one may fall concerning mass culture.
 Works Cited

“8 Games That Influenced Pop Culture.” Firewireblog.com, 31 July 2022,

firewireblog.com/2022/07/31/8-games-that-influenced-pop-culture/.

Cox, Daniel A. “The Childhood Loneliness of Generation Z.” The Survey Center on American

Life, 4 Apr. 2022, www.americansurveycenter.org/the-lonely-childhood-of-generation-z/.

Li, Pamela. “Formative Years - Why Are They Important in Child Development.” Parenting for

Brain, 27 Feb. 2022,

www.parentingforbrain.com/formative-years/#:~:text=What%20Are%20The%20Formati

ve%20Years.

“The Video Games Your Child Plays Has an Effect on Their Behavior.” University of Utah

Health | University of Utah Health, 9 Aug. 2021,

healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/kids-zone/all/2021/08/video-games-your-child-plays-has-ef

fect-their-behavior#:~:text=Too%20much%20video%20game%20can.

“TV Violence and Children.” Www.aacap.org, Dec. 2017,

www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-A

nd-TV-Violence-013.aspx#:~:text=Extensive%20viewing%20of%20television%20violen

ce.