Pop Culture: Does it Affect our Interpersonal Interactions?

 Pop culture and its associated messages are a huge part of today’s society. One of the biggest examples that I can think of that demonstrate how pop culture can bring people together and make them feel included is from the first Avengers movie. The scene where Captain America is sitting in the meeting on the helecarrier and gets excited that he understood a reference that Iron Man had made. He felt the need to exclaim that he understood the reference, making it clear that he was a peer of the people he was working with. He even looks around as he says it to make sure that those around him are paying attention. 

Though most of the people in the room look at him like he’s abnormal, no one actually says anything negative to his revelation, and things move on and the Avengers go on to save the world. Are all pop culture messages going to lead to this outcome? No. But it definitely shows that pop culture and its various references can lead to people feeling included. 


Another example of this is the massively popular tabletop RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t know a ton about this game until maybe the last 6 or 7 years. My ex had tried to introduce me to it, but it was hard to follow and it wasn’t explained well so I didn’t really care for it at that time. When I discovered the popular Youtube show, Critical Role, I started to fall in love with the game and the stories and characters that could be created through it. As a writer, I loved the whole world building aspect of the game. Now, because of my love of this amazing game, I have made quite a few friends, and I have a ton of stuff to talk about with a few of my peers at my workplace because of the fact that we share similar interests and can make references to things that many others wouldn’t understand, which brings us closer together.


Overall, I just feel like pop culture is so mainstream because it has the ability to bring people together based on common interests. It can make people feel included when they maybe didn’t before. I suppose my question for the week is this; have you ever made friends due to shared interests in pop culture? I would love to hear of others’ experiences with this. I know that some of my best friends have been made due to sharing of similar interests, so I’d love to hear your stories about it! 

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