With the emergence of technology and social media pop culture is currently seen everywhere and at all times. Every day people’s minds are flooded with images from magazines, new music from the hottest artists, and videos on the internet. There is pop culture involved in education, news, movies, and advertising. With all the popular culture surrounding everyone, it is undoubtedly influencing the way people see themselves. Popular cultural drastically changes self-perception in a negative way like nothing else can. It changes the way both males and females see their bodies. It affects the way people behave and view their actions. It lowers self-esteem in people of all ages. Pop Culture is anywhere and everywhere, and if it continues to change self-perception like it is right now, future generations will grow to have worse and worse perceptions of themselves.

With images of celebrities and pop culture figures everywhere, their ‘perfect’ bodies and faces are seen everywhere. The inflows of these images change the perception of the body. In magazines such as Glamour, Vogue, or Sports Illustrated the pages are filled with images of attractive and ultra-thin or muscular models. This gives men and women the idea that to be beautiful you have to be skinny, or tall, or buff. One of the most popular actresses, Jenifer Lawrence, was called plus size when modeling. She is skinny compared to average women, and when she is called plus size other women can only imagine how big they are. The average American sees about 500 advertisements a day. With all of these ads, people are constantly surrounded with images of edited people that they will most likely never look like. In almost every movie that comes out the actresses are stereotypically beautiful, being thin with shiny hair, big breasts, and perfect make-up and skin. The actors are tall and muscular, with perfect skin and hair as well. In a majority of movies, the ‘attractive’ characters are successful, and the stars of the show. For example, The Hunger Games, one of the recent top grossing movies uses popular actors Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson. Both characters are muscular and have looks that are appealing to most women. Their characters in the movie are bold, and strong, and lovable. In popular children’s movies such as High School Musical, a Disney Channel film, every character fits the image of stereotypical beauty. The characters are supposed to be average high school kids, but most average high school kids do not look like supermodels. This gives kids the idea that it is normal and necessary for every person to look the same, and conform to typical beauty standards. When people are surrounded by images of celebrities their entire life, celebrities they look nothing like, their thoughts of themselves change for the worse. Men and women will grow to see themselves as unattractive, because they are constantly comparing themselves to the pictures that they see in magazines, on television, in movies and in advertisements. With pop culture everywhere, self-perception of the body becomes much more negative.

Another thing that has changed with the age of pop culture is the way people behave. Behavior ties into self-perception because it is the way people feel they should act, and how they see their actions. Popular themes in music today are sex, drugs, alcohol. Every song on the hip hop and pop radio stations seem to relate to one of these themes. The songs make it seem normal to drink and party and sleep around. This affects a person’s behavior in that it is makes it seem normal and cool to do these things. In movies and television shows, there is often times teens drinking, or adults using drugs. Pop culture displays risky behaviors such as drinking or unprotected sex in an attractive manner. The characters seen in movies and music and on television seem to have no boundaries, and it makes people believe that they shouldn’t either. In movies and television shows there are often common portrayals of high school and the cliques in them. There are groups like the nerds, the jocks, the pretty popular girls, the band kids and many more. In actuality most kids are pretty well rounded and not in one specific clique. These groups make teenage students believe they have to act one way, and can discourage them from doing what they love. Behavior is also changed with advertisements. Advertisements play a big role in what people do and what they buy. It persuades people to buy things that they do not really need and act in a manner that is not best for them because pop culture figures are doing certain things and buying certain items. Pop culture affects behavior in a negative manner. When people are surrounded by pop culture at all times it will begin to influence the way they act. This affects self-perception because people will begin to think that their bad actions and behavior are appropriate.

A common image that comes when thinking of celebrities and pop culture is success and glamour. Pop culture represents what is current. Pop culture displays money, fame, relationships, love and success like it is all easily accessible. When surrounded by all these, it lowers self-esteem because average people cannot compare to what they see or hear. Films, music, television shows and even magazines display love in an unrealistic way. The Bachelor has 24 girls all competing for the love of one guy all while on television. It makes finding love seem easy and superficial, as do other pop culture sources. It gives men and women unrealistic expectations about relationships. When love and relationships are not found like they are on television, it lowers self-esteem because of high expectations that are not fulfilled. Success is another thing portrayed in pop culture. There are a lot of songs about having money or television shows showing off wealth. Television shows like My Super Sweet Sixteen and Keeping up with the Kardashians focus on extreme wealth and luxury. It makes people wonder why they cannot have all the wealth they see on these shows. It can make people feel like they are lesser value because they are not wealthy or famous. Self-esteem is a major part of self-perception. It is how good somebody feels that they are and an attitude towards oneself, which is part of self-perception. The images from pop culture lower ones self-esteem, which impacts self-perception in a negative way.

Popular culture is changing the world in ways that nothing else can because of its wide range of influence. It is creating a society of negative self-perception. It shifts the way people of all ages and genders feel about themselves. It changes what is accepted in behavior, and also lowers self-esteem. Pop culture has grown to make a larger and larger impact on society. It is rapidly growing and leading to worse and worse self-perception. Technology and social media are prominent in today’s society, brining everyone closer to pop culture. The influence of pop culture will continue to grow, and continue to have a negative effect on self-perception. The only way to change this is by making pop culture more realistic and relatable. It is easier said than done, but if pop culture changes for the positive, so will society.