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modern popular culture transmitted via the mass media and aimed particularly at younger people.
Today , people are more interested in how much their favourite pop star paid for their shoes and what brand they are then what is actually happening in the world. You would rather pay £100 for shoes just to look like an idiot from the TV, but you will not donate £3 a month to give a newborn clean water because you’re “saving”. It is more important that your “friend” is impressed that you have enough money to throw away on materialistic “needs”. When it goes out of fashion you throw it away, together with the money that could have gone to a better place. You will wear your Gucci coat in the heat for a picture on instagram so that your followers will see you’re serious about style.
Who cares that a child starves every 10 seconds? You can afford to eat. Kim Kardashian will not tell you to support a charity because donations don’t go straight into her pocket. On the screen she will give you her good example of what to do with money instead. She will take you through the luxuries of her 5 star hotel. Her all-inclusive beach day in her £2000 swimsuit. She will go through all this sacrifice just to show you how to use your money wisely. The infinite comfort of the expensive bikini that even struggles to cover anything. Download her app and look at her Facebook feed so she can continue working very hard to make the world a better place!
You will come back from school and claim you’re tired, depressed and demotivated. You will look at the TV for inspiration . After a while you will decide that you want to be like those people. So you start a new instagram and post a 1000 selfies so that a modelling company notices you and you become a millionaire overnight. Girls, fame and money is what your after. Then you can get sponsoring, branded goods for free; cars , parties and the red carpet. Become a king. The next step is to introduce your own clothing range or perfumes or accessories. These will be produced at a low cost somewhere in China but this does not matter, since you will sell them for a price 200 times their wage.
You will look out the window at people wearing your clothes, but you will not go out and meet them. You will stay inside just in case one of your 1000000000 followers recognises you and wants your signature or picture, after all they are just there to provide you with profit (disposable income you can waste).
One fun year will go by . Then you will notice a decline in your popularity, not as many likes on your pictures, less profit coming in, closing factories since an extension strategy will not work any more. Your decline will put you back in your family house with your mother and no education to peruse a decent job. Five years later you will be struggling to live on your minimum wage, no one will recognise you any more. You will end up in a place where no one can afford to look up to TV stars. Instead of your daily problems being what brand clothes to wear, the things that will worry you will be: crime , money and food.
You will see the part of the world which the pop culture was created to cover. In the news they will talk of stars instead of giving attention to serious issues, people without money or people forced to peruse crime to make a living.Which makes you question… why do they talk about stars in the news? The royal family does not do anything any more, but when a new child is born everyone cares. Like this the government can do whatever they want, no one will even care about it. Distract you with other things , no one will read a less popular newspaper, even though it may speak the truth.
React!