Popular Culture and the Development

Popular Culture and the Development of Cyberculture

Popular culture is the visible expression of our thoughts and feelings then, but it is itself "invisible" in its own way simply because its very omnipresence so often causes us to overlook it -- to look through the water surrounding us rather than at it. " (Nachbar and Lause 40)

Popular culture in theoretical and historical terms is the division of culture into elitist and "high" forms of culture and popular or more common forms of cultural activity. Popular culture has during the past century in fact been defined and understood in contrast to "high" or more elevated forms of culture. In essence popular culture refers to cultural forms of interest and entertainment common to the masses or the majority of people. This also refers to the way that people en masse perceive and relate to reality in a more philosophical sense.

This view of popular culture is important in understanding the most recent form of popular cultural activity - cyberculture and the Internet.

The view of popular culture as being somehow inferior to 'higher' forms of culture can be traced back through history and to the sense of elitism and divisions in society between the rich and poor, the powerful and the less-powerful. The foundations of the term "popular culture' and its definition in a contemporary context, can be related to influential thinkers like Matthew Arnold and the Nineteenth Century in Britain. "The idea of popular culture, as we know it, only came about in the second half of the nineteenth century and for the first fifty years or so was viewed very negatively by those who dared to acknowledge its existence." (Popular culture)

This perception of culture in general was divided into a number of distinct categories - high, popular, and folk. These categories are also related to the way that society was socially stratified or divided up into class divisions. During the Nineteenth Century many expressed the view that certain societal privileges should be the role of the elite structures of societal.

The right to vote had been the possession of the wealthy landed class since the first inception of Parliament, but the nineteenth century saw men from the middle and eventually working class demanding the right to vote. The idea of universal male suffrage was as distasteful then as the idea of women's suffrage would be a few decades later.

Popular culture)

This view therefore exemplifies the aristocratic ideal as expressed in the ideal of higher and 'lower' cultures.

To the aristocrats the working class was "raw and uncultivated," consisting of "vast, miserable unmanageable masses of sunken people," who if given the vote "...would surely create anarchy, as it was inherently in their nature to do. "(Popular culture) Therefore, through the views of Matthew Arnold and other writers of the period the idea of popular culture refers to the lower or less important form of culture in a society - the culture of the masses.

It is also important to understand the term culture when referring to modern cyberculture. Culture can be seen as "...how an entire society operates, including economy, political structure, and religion, but it can also be used to refer to the aesthetic elements of society." (Popular culture) Therefore culture is an interdependent and dynamic concept. While the elitist view of culture represents only a small percentage of the population, it does not take account of the larger majority of individuals. This popular culture has assumed a greater importance in the light of modern technological developments.

With the start of the Twentieth Century there was a greater questioning of the status quo and elitist culture in countries like Britain and America. The ideals of democracy resulted in the acceptance of popular culture in many developed areas of the world. Furthermore, it was the advent of the Internet which was, in part, to bring about the democratization and the expansion of popular culture.

The creation of the Internet and the development of the World Wide Web, with its many aspects and communications abilities, is possibly the antithesis of the view that the elitists had of culture. In effect that the Internet has achieved the enhanced and the distribution of a world- wide popular culture that is shared within and between countries - as an embryonic international popular culture.

An important aspect of this particular type of popular culture is that it is the carrier or medium of various forms of popular culture; as well as being a form of popular culture in itself. In reality the Internet and aspects of the Word Wide Web have created new forms of popular culture that are more extensive and pervasive than ever before.

Ironically the Internet as a source of popular culture began as an elitist project run by government and the military. The history of the Internet began in 1968 with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency network (ARPAnet). This project was designed "...to provide a distributed, flexible and self-healing command network which would enable the U.S. military to continue operating even if Soviet military missiles took out certain geographical locations on the network." (Kiesler 5) This project was to evolve into the World Wide Web or Internet. The World Wide Web in fact began at the European nuclear research center in 1989 as a strategy to use computers to help coordinate projects.

The essence of the WWW.conceptwas the construction of a "browser" that allowed a user to move across the Internet looking into specially prepared files stored for the purpose of being browsed. The key idea was that the reader went looking for information rather than the user specifically distributing the information.

Kiesler 5)

These technological events result in the development of the concept and experience of the form of popular culture known as cyberculture. Cyberspace is described a follows.

A common mental geography, built, in turn, by consensus and revolution, canon and experiment; a territory swarming with data and lies, with mind stuff and memories of nature, with a million voices and two million eyes in a silent, invisible concert to enquiry, deal-making, dream sharing, and simple beholding.

Bell 7)

From these beginnings various popular cultural groups began taking shape and making their presence known. One of the most well-known of these is the cyberpunks. "The cyberpunks were the first generation of artists for whom the technologies of satellite dishes, video and audio players and recorders, computers and video games... digital watches, and MTV were not exoticisms, but part of a daily 'reality matrix'." (Bell 24) the Internet began to take shape as a medium for the development not only of communication but also of newer forms and areas for the expression of popular culture. As one pundit wrote, "We are witnessing a series of transformations in the realms of culture, power, and capitalism." (Budde 77)

An important aspect of cyberculture and part of the reason for its popularity is that fact that it succeeds to a large degree in challenging existing social structures and cultural norms. This is partly the result of the new technology that has been implemented. Legal, ethical, cultural, and political aspects of society are forced to "...adjust to the impositions of new technology....Technological innovations also dislocate routine processes and create anxieties for people. Society is forced to redefine old rules or identify new rules for sustaining social relationships." (Ebo 1) Therefore, as a medium for the growth of forms of popular culture, the Internet is a means of creating new modes of identity through the expression of the popular consciousness. One also has to consider the way in which this communications technology impacts on popular culture. (Kiesler 119)

Among the many forms of popular culture that the Internet has spawned, one of the most recent and important is increase in networking systems and sites as well as the acceleration in private publishing, such as Weblogs. The resultant focus of Internet technology has been to create a greater degree of contact and sharing among diverse people. This has created an atmosphere and an ethos that is particular to the Internet and the Web.

Popular culture has also entered into publishing and the media. These are areas that that were previously reserved for the elite and large companies and publishers. Today it is relatively easy to publish without any assistance except software and an online connection. The dramatic increase in Weblogs has shown how the concept of self- publishing has entered into the popular culture.

This aspect of popular culture has also had a dramatic impact on the media industry and journalism. It has become acceptable for freelance journalists to publish their investigative journalism online - as part to the democratization of the media through popular culture. An excellent example of this is the Drudge Report. Matthew Drudge is a journalist who runs the Drudge Report website. He received international attention when he was the first to break the story about the scandal about President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in 1988. (Glende)

One of the most recent technological developments which has precipitated a greater democratization of the Internet is the proliferation of networking sites that have become prominent recently. These sites attract millions of users and viewers or users and viewers and have become a source for the proliferation of popular culture.

There is also a view from scholars that the link between popular cultures and the Internet is synergistic. In other words, the increase in popular culture is a motivating force for the increase in Internet usage and at the same time the new online technologies that are being developed are providing the platform for increased popular culture activity. In a paper by Hakan Selg, entitled Popular Culture as a Driver of Internet Use, the author stresses how developments in popular culture have become associated with increases in Internet usage. (Selg)

There is little doubt that the future of popular culture is intimately tied to and dependent on the developments of the Internet and related technologies, such as mobile communication. There are however many who are pessimistic about the future of popular culture in the digital age. Some are wary of the development on the Web and fear that the uniqueness of forms of popular culture are already being manipulated and absorbed by large business and corporations. For example, theorists like Adorno "...arrive only at dismal conclusions about cooptation and reabsorption." (Hoover, and Stokes 21) What is certain is that the future shape and form of popular culture will be influenced by the Internet and the various new modes of communication and interaction that are bound to emerge.