Nowadays, culture has to get dispersed through the entire world through different cultural activities such as communication, media, music and art. Cultural values and ideas coming from common exposure in our society all come from a specific targeted medium; mass culture. Mass culture has become, over the years, universal and its impacts on our society are above and beyond expectations. While the transmission of culture is increasing through a high raise in technology, expansion of media got infinite so as the impacts on society.

 

Since the early 1800’s, the historical reasons for the growth of mass culture are evident.  Business enterprises established a beneficial market in the cultural demands of the freshly awakened masses. Therefore, an important shift in technology started occurring and made it possible for cheap productions and reproductions in music; books, periodicals, pictures etc, which made it possible to satisfy the market. New types of media such as movies and television also made their appearances in the market through modern technology (Dwight). Therefore, an intelligible way to define mass culture would be, according to (Perry), ‘’Mass culture typically refers to that culture which emerges from the centralized production processes of the mass media’’. Alternatively, mass culture is effective, subversive and very democratic. Folk music, popular culture and postmodern culture are all part of mass culture as a group. The bounds of these categories can however be debated. 

 

Indeed, mass culture has an important impact worldwide and its effects are crucial in today’s society. Over the years, medias has become to spread everywhere over the world. From young girls doing pageants wanting to be shown on air to be famous, to celebrities being all over the internet and magazines, mass media can be destructive for society. Beauty standards turned into stereotypes and a sad representation of what young girls should refer to while growing up. Mass culture is widely propagated via the mass media, which develops a lack in exclusive content in local communities. Furthermore, without any doubts, mass culture dramatically promotes the role of individuals as consumers. With continuous rise of technology, concerns are evoked concerning their influence and society’s needs. 

 

That being said, the growth of mass culture truly has impacted today’s society. Media has such crucial impacts whether it is the perception of beauty, particularly among youth, since it is being transmitted in general through television and radio.  The perception of beauty that children have is surely spread through mass culture, which clearly does not help the way children perceive themselves in our harsh world.