Youth culture is "the sum of the ways of living of adolescents; it refers to the body of norms, values, and practices recognized and shared by members of the adolescent society as appropriate guides to actions".This definition includes two elements. The first is culture, which can be defined as the symbolic systems, and processes of maintaining and transforming those systems, that people share.The second part of this definition is that youth culture is specific to adolescents, and differs at least partially from the culture of older generations.
Elements of youth culture include beliefs, behaviors, styles, and interests. An emphasis on clothes, popular music, sports, vocabulary, and dating set adolescents apart from other age groups, giving them what many believe is a distinct culture of their own.
What are some examples of 'Youth Culture'?
Well, Youth Culture can be divided into many categories such as fashion, popular music and social media sites. There's definitely much more but these are just a few of them we're gonna talk about on this blog post.
Fashion
The fashion trend among youth changes really fast, which is other words known as fast fashion. Fast fashion is a term used by fashion retailers to acknowledge that designs move from catwalk to store in the fastest time to capture the current trends in the market. These clothing collections are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at Fashion Week in both the spring and the autumn of every year. These trends are designed and manufactured quickly and inexpensively so that mainstream consumers can take advantage of current clothing styles at lower prices to sell out to customers and earn profits. This philosophy is being used by many large retailer, some examples are H&M, Cotton On and Forever 21.
If you compare youth fashion in the past and now, there is a huge contrast in them. For example, in the past, youths like to wear long pants and short sleeves shirts. If they are wearing tubes, sleeveless, they would put on a jacket. If they are wearing skirts, dresses and shorts, they tend to wear stocking underneath. Also, they tend to wear dull colours. Well, they were really conservative then.
Now, you can see a huge difference. Crop tops, tank tops, sleeveless tops, short shorts, mini flappy skirts and dresses, all the really skimpy clothings. The clothes are really bright and filled with lots of colours. This is how youth fashion is like now.
Popular Music
Youth nowadays can't live a day without music! Research has shown that music that have great impacts in one's life and it can help to reduce stress level too.
Many youths love kpop artists such as girls generation, super junior and big bang etc. Although many of the fans are not Koreans, these youths appreciate the idols' looks and cuteness over the music. Hence, appearance does matter when youths listen to music sometimes.
Also, since many people understand english, they also love American Popular Music. Some of the most popular artists are One Direction, Katy Perry and Maroon 5.
Social Media
Social media has also played an important role in a youth's life. It is a place where youths can communicate, interact and know one another easily and conveniently. A few examples are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.
Throughout our whole project work and research, we'll be focusing more on the 2nd category, Popular Culture, as this has impacted many youths' life in different ways. Hence, we are going to investigate on our question, "Should we allow alterations to our body?", using many examples and case studies from celebrities and Popular Culture.
Why does youth fashion change so drastically throughout the years?
ReplyDelete-Yasmin
Well, youths in the past is very conservative but youths nowadays loves to receive attention from others. Hence, they wear skimpy clothes to attract others' attention. Is this the only way one can get attention from someone?
ReplyDelete-Celeste
This is not the only way. By helping your friends when they are in need, makes one remember and be fond of you more. However, most youths think otherwise and thinks that by showing some skin can attract one's attention. Does wearing skimpy clothes even attract others' attention?
ReplyDelete-Sze Yen
Actually, it does. However, what youths want are actually people's care and concerns. By wearing skimpy clothes and posting it on social media sites to attract one's attention, it only attracts people's attention because of his/her sexiness in a way. How can social media sites play an important role in a youth's life?
ReplyDelete-Yasmin
Social media sites can help find people of the same passion and/or interest as you. Furthermore, you can speak to one another more conveniently. However, there are cons out of these pros. What are they?
ReplyDelete-Xiang Ting
Some of the cons are that social media sites can cause one to be addicted, hence spending lots of time there. This can affect one's studies. Also, if one accidentally or intentionally release personal information such as phone numbers or addresses, this can cause one to be in grave danger.
ReplyDelete-Celeste
Are the Popular Music Artists to be blamed for giving bad influence towards youths?
ReplyDelete-Sze Yen
I feel that they should be blamed because as they are famous, many people look up to them as fashion icon, an inspiration and others. Whatever actions they have done, youths would just blindly follow as they are inspired greatly by them.
ReplyDelete-Yasmin
I feel that they should not be blamed as even though they can be a influence for youths. It is up to the youths to decide whether they should follow suit or not. Furthermore, it is their choice and freedom. No one can change their thinkings and opinions too.
ReplyDelete-Celeste