Tag Archives: popular culture

Our Popular Culture “Shrines”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suicidal_crayon/187673070/

What we have called a “shrine” is a space created by us that ties us, through popular culture, to other people in our generation. This can be a bedroom wall, a locker, or a Facebook page. I have suggested that these shrines are ventures in the creation of identity. Do we define ourselves against other people, to show how we are unique? Or are we defining ourselves in a way that shows how we are like other people in our generation?

Find a Facebook, or other social networking page that you know, and describe how it creates identity. How does it create personal identity? And does it participate in an identity of one generation? For example, the girl in the site above references only recent bands by her choice of wall posters.

SOC 325 Popular Culture in America

I am Professor John C. Holley, and this blog is for Sociology 325 “Popular Culture in America” Fall 2008. I will be posting information for students, my own thoughts on popular culture, and commenting on the activities of this class. For my students reading this, welcome to the Sociology Department and this course on television, movies, entertainment – and especially the people who watch them. This includes us. In this course we will talk about what we ourselves are watching and post a kind of “media journal” about our use of popular culture.