Hi everyone!!!
Today I am going to be writing about Raymond Williams ideas about dominant, emergent, residual, and archaic social culture. In today's society new trends emerge constantly, but how we develop these trends as a culture is actually very interesting to me. But before you begin reading, first ask yourself this question - "How do you think we surface new culture?"- ok now read ;)!
Dominant culture is the most powerful culture - hints the name. In terms of social media, dominant culture can be simply described as what everyone else is doing. This type of culture also focuses a lot on individuality, when someone makes their own meme and posts it on social media - it makes them feel powerful when they get a lot of shares or likes.Let's take it back to the beginning of quarantine, which show did literally everyone and their mom watch - Tiger King. I am not going to lie, I was a little late to the game and didn't think I would enjoy the show, but that's what every meme was about on social media so I felt like I had to watch it. Dominant culture makes you feel like you're fitting into society and it makes you feel as if you are in the loop with the newest trends or news that is going on in the world.
Emergent culture is new practices and ideas that are created by groups or individuals in society. Defining emergent in a more simple way would be - groups or individuals creating the next best thing. Emergent culture is easily made in today's society, mainly thanks to TikTok. TikTok itself just became the new best social media platform. But what is really cool about TikTok that you will hear a lot of is people saying things like - "I saw it on TikTok'' or "This is the new trend on TikTok". For some reason, this particular social media platform can convince anyone to do or believe literally anything (I do it too sometimes). Another example for emergent culture could be something like - or should I say someone like, Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber started his career very young, which entailed his swoosh haircut and his baby voice. But over the past decade, Justin has still found a way to keep his fans close with making new music and a new brand for himself.
Residual culture is merely the influence of old cultural practices. This type of social culture is actually built from the dominant culture. In other words, residual culture is usually something out of style but will find a way to come back. An example of residual culture that I have seen recently would be yoga pants. Whenever I was in middle school you were only cool if you had THE Victoria Secret PINK yoga pants. These pants were not the same as your average pair of leggings you see today, since they would be what you would call a "straight leg" pair of leggings. So the other day when I was on TikTok, I saw a girl who probably looked the age of 13 - and she called these leggings "the new flared leggings" (my mind was blown). This trend was obviously not new to me, but very new to her. I wasn't in shock that this style came back, but I was very concerned when they were trending on social media as "flared leggings"(LOL). With that being said, I would say residual culture plays a HUGE role in shaping today's society.
Lastly, archaic culture is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - the most outdated cultural practice. This type of social culture is literally so old that no one cares one bit. An example of archaic culture in regards to social media would probably be flip phones. In today's society if you have a flip phone, you would be considered an ancient dinosaur. Flip phones were super dope whenever I was a kid, and let's be honest the Razor's were the COOLEST. But sadly if you walk around with a pink Razor in today's time you might get called a loser since you don't have a smartphone. Old news would also be considered as archaic - someone like Britney Spears. For the longest time no one ever talked about Britney Spears or knew where she was (I actually thought she died), but now she is low-key making a come back within society with her new documentary #SaveBritney.
Each of these different types of social culture play a really big role in society. With that being said, the social media aspect of culture is just as important as the people who start new trends. Everyone has the ability to choose whether or not they are going to follow and be involved in social trends. Even though it is really about the type of social culture itself, we as the public are the ones who will make culture dominant, emergent, residual, or archaic.
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