Culture Participation

To be involved in our culture can be an issue of so many meanings. Whether you are a blogger, a writer, a facebooker, a creator, a gamer, you are a cultural contributor. To define culture is like trying to define the sky, it is something that is larger than our knowledge of it. People of the world come together to invent and create new ways to live life, to experience living. I am involved in many of these categories of culture, but the one I am most deeply connected with is social networking. I am currently on facebook, myspace and with the perseverance I have gathered recently I am writing and continuing with a blog.

No matter how you look at it, all cultural elements affect the public and how we interact with one another. My personal involvement may not have an impact on anyone, but who’s to say it doesn’t? I create ways of communicating my thoughts, just like how Stauber and Rampton created a mindset that contributing to the public should be for the truth, and the better of society. In their book “Toxic Sludge is good for you” they mention that they “want the public at large to recognize the skilled propagandists of industry and government who are affecting public opinion” (Stauber and Rampton 16). But how can any of us recognize what’s real and what has been manipulated? I myself have been convinced that blogging is something natural and although it is my opinion, no one will know the difference. Public Relations is a big part of culture, do I want part of that? Of course not, because it is currently being described as what a democracy doesn’t need. Journalism is what provoked me to start writing in the first place, and encouraged me to participate in today’s culture. I won’t let social networking be the demise of my imagination, or let public relations be the reason I continue. Let’s all participate and see where life takes us.

Works Cited

Stauber, John, and Sheldon Rampton. Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. US: Center for Media, 1995. Print.