Posted by Mary on November 16, 19102 at 05:42:22:
Issue:"The most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyze the trends of its youth."
Although contemporary society is composed not only of the youth but only the older,as is known to everyone,the youth are playing the most important role in creating this society.Their minds,actions and their culture influence many aspects of contemporary culture.To understand contemporary culture,its necessary to understand the youth.In my opinion,it is more or less true to say that contemporary culture is dominated by youth culture.
We live in an age when old people are marginalized in society.That is to say,old people are no longer in the leading place to the development of social culture as they once were.They have given way to the youth,who,as an aspiring and promising generation of the sociery,hold many kinds of now views to this world.In fact,most of contemporary culture are cultivated for the youth,and what people care for most is the minds and values of the youth.For instance,fromthe primary school to the university,young people had to spend a period as long as about sixteen years in school to command many kinds od rudiments and good values and correct views to this world to become a mentally healthy people having their own culture.In this period,many expectations are exerted on them and the curriculum is designed for their best development.The culture is transmited to their good.
To be more specific,what we call mass culture produced by the mass media,as a matter of fact,is a reflection of the trends among the youth.There is a good example.In air media,most of the programs are about the youth.Many spheres of their world are shown on this mental stage.Here,their problems are the everlasting main topic.Of course,there are some problems designed for the older,but this is not enough to influence the dominance of the youth's programs.According to all mentioned above,what mass culture reflects is the minds and values of the yough,and is the happiness and sorrow of them.In other words,mass culture reflects the trends among the youth.
Though the dominant role of the youth in contemporary culture,there is urgent need for the younger generation and the older generation to understand each other and to build a more balanced contemporary culture.A culture should not be only the youth's culture and it should also be the olders culture,or it will be a dull one,a unbalanced one,whichwill delapidate to one side some day.So,we cannot ignore the role the older plays in the cultivating of contemporary culture.Just as analalyzing a society needs analalyzing both men and women,to understanding a culture needs to understanding both the youth and the older.Without the older's culture the youth cannot absort the essence of the culture of the past.Thus,neither side shouldrepel the opposite culture,but should understand each other and absorb good values from each side.
In conclusion,to understand contemporary culture,analalyzing the trends of its youth is most important and effective.But on the other hand,the culture among the old cannot be rejected which is a essential part of the whole contemporary culture.Only through combining the trends of both the youth and the older,can we grasp the essence of contemporary culture.