"I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation..."

Imagine an alien drops into your backyard and asks you to describe this country. You’d probably have a much easier time giving him geographic and historical markers than providing a feel for the nation’s culture. Are we a country of ‘followers,’ absorbing what “pop culture” tells us is entertaining (Survivor) and mainstream (Abercrombie and Fitch) and creative (Kanye West)? Or are we a people individually dedicated to swathing our own paths of creativity; for example, look no further than the hundreds of indie artists on YouTube. It is this dual-cultural force that provides the basis for Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper’s article “Cultural Renaissance or Cultural Divide.” The authors explore the idea that recent, major advances in technology have changed the way we consume pop culture. They argue that with the ease of the digital age, people have taken charge of their own arts experience. We have the means and the choice to create whatever we want…and there is a deepening appreciation for the independent, the unique, the funky. Tepper and Ivey also examine the counterpoint of this thesis, that in fact technology has birthed a controlled, “narrow selection of preprocessed, corporate produced music, literature, movies, and TV” (31).

While this article took some wading through, I found it very interesting. Where do I stand along this cultural divide? I would like to think I am a creative, self-defining type. I enjoy painting, drawing and other fine arts and I have my own custom cake business. Technology has opened so many doors within these pursuits. I can Google paintings in the Louvre, or I chat with people online about the best way to make a cake that looks like a race boat. Rather than curtailing my creativity, technology has expanded to include all of my varied, odd little interests. However, I do realize that I fall into the mindless aspect of mass-consumer produced media. Sometimes, I tune out rather than participate in the arts experience. I flip on the radio and settle for what I’m told is popular (but really stinks) or see another bad movie for its special effects. However, it all boils down to whether you use technology to be a sheep, or a sheepdog. Can one avail oneself of the mass media, without disappearing into the masses? Technology can only diversify our culture if we allow it to.