Paper Presentation

On

Today’s youngsters are a reflection of the

society and culture
 Today’s youngsters in India are a reflection of the
Society and culture

Mass Media Influence

In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first
there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the Internet.

The society depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do
the daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, traveling
and anything else that have to be done.

A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the TV news or newspaper, goes to work, makes
a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his/her decisions based on the
information that he/she has either from their co workers, news, TV, friends, family, financial reports,
etc.

What people need to be aware is that most of their decisions, beliefs and values are based on what they
know for a fact, they assumptions and they own experience. People at work usually know what they
have to do base on they experience and studies, however in daily lives people rely on the media to get
the current news and facts about what is important and what they should be aware of.

Media as an authority gives news, entertainment and education which is trusted by the society.
However, the influence of mass media on the kids, teenagers and society is so big that one should know
how it really works.

Years ago there was more diversity in companies, but they have merged so now they are just a few and
they have the power to shape the opinion and beliefs of people. So it’s important to be aware of to what
kids are exposed every day and one should also try to look at things from different perspectives and not
just from what media gives to the society.
 How does mass media influence young people?
The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that people are exposed to.
People buy what is said to be good and seeing thousands of advertisings buying decisions are made.

These are the effects of mass media in teenagers, they buy what they see on Tv, what their favorite
celebrity advertise and what is acceptable by society based on the fashion that the media has imposed
them.

There are some positive and negative influences in young people.

Here is a positive influence example, if there is a sport that is getting a lot of attention by the media and
gains popularity among friends and society, they will more likely want to practice the sport and be cool
with all their friends. The result is that the person will have fun with his/her friends and be healthier
because of the exercise they are doing.

However a negative influence in teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity movie stars, the constant
exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence and exposure to thousands of junk food ads.

Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers, they want to be loved
and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of a beautiful men and women and tells what the
characteristics of a successful person are; it’s seen in movies and tv. It’s a subliminal way to tell that,
“if you are not like them you are not cool yet” so its time to buy the stuff they buy and look like they
look.

Another negative influence in teenagers that has grown over the last years are anorexia and obesity.
There are millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at the same time they are exposed to thousands
of advertisements of junk food, while the ideas image of a successful person is told to be thin and
wealthy.

Also more women are obsessive with losing weight even when they are not obese; there are many thin
women who want to look like the super models and thin celebrities so they engage in eating disorders
which lead to severe health issues and even death.
 Effects of violence in the Media
When watching TV or a movie we see many images of violence and people hurting others. The
problem with this is that it can become traumatic especially in children as its seen more and more. Kids
who are starting to grow and shape their personality values and beliefs, can become aggressive or they
can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing.

In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school and even hurting others
with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of violent video games and war images.

Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media, we should make the
kids and teen aware that war is not a form of entertainment and that there is no win or lose like in video
games, in real war everyone lose.

How media influences public opinion?

As it’s said above, the media has a huge impact on society and also in public opinion. They can shape
the public opinion in different ways depending of what is the objective.

For example, after the attacks of 9/11 the media gave a huge coverage of the event and exposed Osama
guilty for the attack as they were told by the authorities. This shaped the public opinion to support the
war on terrorism, the same happened with the war on Iraq. The problem is that if media received
inaccurate information then the public opinion supported a wrong cause, this is the power of public
opinion influence.

Other ways to influence are with polls and trends, especially in political campaigns. The candidates that
can pay for more TV and media exposure have more influence on public opinion and thus can receive
more votes.
 The Importance of Politics in the Younger Generation

Strong political parties are necessary for a healthy government. This shows that politics has a strong
influence on the opinions of citizens, including long-term issues and current affairs.
Young people today think little about politics and how politics affects them. Young people often
overlook the significance of understanding the relevance of politics in their lives. Young adults do not
know what they are missing when they assume politics is not as essential to them as it is to our older
generation. Younger people tend not to care for politics for a few reasons. For e.g. taxes. So politics,
though it affects teens and young people, is shaped by adults. The average young adult is not interested
in the terms of the budget summary nearly as much as a cricket season. Plainly put, politics is on a
different level of intelligence and interest than what we are used to.

Influence of tradition and culture

India is a culturally diverse country. Sixteen per cent of the world’s population lives in
the country. There are over 826 languages and thousands of dialects spoken. The
difference in regions, topography and climate allow for different types of lifestyles and
culture. Although about 70 per cent of the populations live in rural areas, India is rapidly
urbanizing with more than 225 cities with over 100,000 population, and at least ten cities
alone with over a million people.

By United Nations standards, Indian has begun to age. Over 7.7% of the population is
above 60 years and this number is expected to reach 12.6% by the year 2025. . Improved
sanitation, increased attention to maternal health and better childcare facilities greatly
reduced infant mortality rates.

There is a substantial influence of western culture on Indian youths. Mere mention of the word 'India'
signifies a place of cultural heritage as well as diversity. But the cultural legacy that we are showing to
the whole world is becoming a thing of history in metropolitan cities.
On one side people enjoy so-called rich culture and really admire it but on the other side
find discotheques full of young guys and girls. Secondly, Joint family tradition; one of the
biggest assets of India is now vanishing under the shadow of the so-called western
culture. Nuclear families are taking place of many years' old values. Youth of today is
more interested in their privacy rather than enjoying their lives with others.
Individualization has broken up the joint family system, paving way for the youth to fall
prey to drug addiction. This stage is the most vulnerable period of life where the youth
need guidance, counseling, education and care by parents.

Is the Indian culture vanishing from the soul of young Indian Generation? Is the question
asked frequently. Today the western culture has its tremendous impact all over the
country and it is to such an extent that the young people now feel a shame to follow the
Indian tradition but they wear a pride on their face by adopting the western culture and
this proves that now the scenario has all over entered a new phase. Where are those
values, which were imparted to the young people? Now the world is not the same, the
people are not the same. This western culture is taking our people to the verge of
degradation. Today the man has drastically changed from head to toe and does not show
even a single sign of Indian values, which was imparted to him as a young child. Is it
possible to get back to that scenario? May be the answer is next to impossible but if every
one of determines to change their selves then it will take no time for the country to once
again raise its head up and be proud of its rich culture and moral value inculcated people.

Role of globalization
Globalization has led to the development of a bicultural identity or perhaps a hybrid
identity, which means that part of one’s identity is rooted in the local culture while
another part stems from an awareness of one’s relation to the global world. The
development of global identities is no longer just a part of immigrants and ethic
minorities. People today especially the young develop an identity that gives them a sense
of belonging to a worldwide culture, which includes an awareness of events, practices,
styles and information that are a part of the global culture. Media such as television and
especially the Internet, which allows for instant communication with any place in the
world, play an important part in developing a global identity. Yet, along with this new
global identity people continue to retain and develop their local identity for daily
interactions with their family, friends and community. A good example of bicultural
identity is among the educated youth in India who despite being integrated into the global
fast paced technological world, may continue to have deep rooted traditional Indian
values with respect to their personal lives and choices such as preference for an arranged
marriage, caring for parents in their old age. Although developing a bicultural identity
means that a local identity is retained alongside a global identity, there is no doubt that
local cultures are being modified by globalization. As traditional cultural practices and
beliefs change, a bicultural or a hybrid multicultural identity likely develops to include
the elements of the native, local and global culture. This is especially true with
immigrants. This shows that

“Although people ape western culture the roots are Indian”

 Research on

Whether today’s youngsters in India are a reflection of the

Society and culture

Objective of the study-

• To study whether society and culture impact today’s youngsters in India

• To study the extent to which youngsters value our culture
• To study if today’s youngsters are indeed a reflection of our culture and society

Research methodology-

Research Design

Our objective is to study whether today’s youngsters in India are a reflection of their
culture and society.
Sampling Method
Convenience sampling method has been used because the selection of units from the
population has been done based on easy availability or accessibility. The Survey has been
conducted amongst people between the age of 15-60 so as to cover a reasonable cross
section of the people who fall into the target group.

Sample Size
45 people consisting of 20 males and 25 females have formed the sample. The
sample involves people from various backgrounds such as students, working people,
home makers and people of old generation.
Data Collection

Primary Data
The first step was to gather information from the sample population.
Questionnaire was prepared to gather data from them.

Secondary Data
Sources of secondary data include magazines, research articles and online data.
All this helped in authenticating the information obtained from our primary sources and
thus helped to get a very objective view of the study.

Findings

The findings have been split into three major criterions

1. Media
2. Culture and religion
3. Politics

Media:
Majority of the sample population (96%) said that media plays a very important
role in the present generation’s lives and it is greatly influencing them and their lifestyle.
Media strongly affects youth culture. Media being one of the important means to reach
out to the masses and influence their thinking and decision making, only to the positive
media cannot attract attention of the masses, and to gain viewer ship, negative media has
to be incorporated to balance out and attract the masses, but a line has to be drawn
between the positive and the negative media in the interest of the younger generation.
Only 4% opposed this idea. Thus media plays a substantial role in the attitudes, behavior
and physical aspects of youth today.
From the research it is also found that young people spend a lot of time watching TV,
surfing the internet etc. Kids are more exposed to violence trough video
games,movies,cartoons and the like which has a great impact on their attitudes and
behavior.Exposure through media enables youngsters to imitate celebrity lifestyles which
has a negative effect on them.

factors High influence Low influence No influence

Television 86% 14%
News paper 54% 33% 13%
Internet 78% 12% 10%
radio 26% 31% 43%

media factors influence

100%
90%
80%
70% Television
percentage

60% News paper

50%
40% Internet
30% radio
20%
10%
0%
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N
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Lo
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level of influence
Culture and tradition:

From the study made it was found that 40% of the respondents believed that youngsters
value our tradition, culture and religion. However it was found that almost 60% of the
sample population suggested that today’s youngsters do not value our culture and
tradition much. The reason is because; they copy the western culture and don’t want to be
the olden – day - traditional country. This can be easily felt by the food, attire and way of
living of the people.
The research reveals that youngster’s lifestyle has changed and this has affected our
culture in a bad way. Adapting the western culture the present generation prefers burgers,
pizzas, soft drinks over our traditional food. This lifestyle affects their health in the long
run as well.

Religion and traditional factors influence level

religious and tradition factors influence level

140%
120%
100%
Impact of religion and
80% culture
60% Attaching high value to
tradition
40%
20%
0%
High influence Neutral Low influence
Politics:
As far as politics impact is concerned, 97% of the respondents said that politics
does not influence the youngsters. People feel that youngsters must know something
about politics; they must realize that it is important to have at least some understanding of
what is happening in our current society. Politics is vital to our society since it is present
issues that affect the society. But today’s youth feel that it’s not their cup of coffee and it
belongs to the older generation. Only 3% said that it has en effect on youngsters. For our
political system to flourish, older adults must realize that younger people must be
educated about politics: why it exists, why it is important, and what this generation can
do.

Interpretation
From the findings the following interpretations have been made-

• It is very clear that today’s youth are greatly influenced by what the media offers
to them. They try to imitate whatever they see and hear in the media.
• Today’s youngsters follow more western traditions when compared to Indian
traditions. This is clearly seen from their living style. But they have not given up
on the values and ethics taught to them by their parents.
• As far as impact of politics on youngsters is concerned it was found that today’s
generation does not follow politics much. They don’t attach much importance to
it. Thus it has an impact on them because it is a part of their environment and
society. Only very few youngsters get influenced by politics.
• We can see that youngsters are balanced when it comes to maintaining cultural
identity even when they follow western culture. They are not ready to give up our
culture and tradition
 • It is seen that politics does not have much impact at all over youngsters.they look
at it only as a part of their environment and nothing more.only very few few
youngsters follow politics and take interest in it.

CHART SHOWING THE ACCEPTANCE LEVEL OF THE INFLUENCING

FACTORS

ACCEPTANCE LEVELOFINFLUENCING FACTORS

100%
80%
INFLUENCING 60%
FACTORS MEDIA
40%
TRADITION & CULTURE
20%
POLITICS
0%
15-30 30-50 50-65
AGE GROUP
 CONCLUSION

OVERALL VIEW

6%

28%
MEDIA
66% TRADITION & CULTURE
POLITICS

The above pie chart shows that today’s youth are influenced 66% by media, 28% by
tradition and culture and 6% by politics. Thus it is evident that today’s youth are
definitely influenced by their society and culture and thus reflect the same.

• Youngsters today are very smart. They know what they want in life. They want to
independent and take their own decisions regarding things connected to their life
• As far as the media is concerned, as clichéd as it may sound, it has been rightly
said all things have there good as well as bad effects. In the similar conduct media
also has its good as well as bad influence on youth. But it definitely has a great
impact on them. Youngsters have to focus on the affirmative aspects of media.
• Though the west has greatly shown its impact on youngsters, leading to a cultural
shock in India, we cannot say that the youth do not care about our tradition and
culture. Though they are influenced by the western culture, they are still rooted to
our traditions and customs only.
 • Politics is a part of the society according to youngsters. They dream of a nation
where everything is in order. They are also aware that politics greatly influences
the way a nation is. Thus politics also has a slight impact on them.

Thus today’s youngsters are definitely a reflection of the society and

culture!!!!!