Culture Through Generations

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” – (LP Hartley)

This quote is very true when it comes to culture. Culture is known to be participatory and that it continually evolve and transform dependent to the people who practice it. The culture in the past can be totally different to our culture today for what they value in the past may not be truly valued today.

Growing up as a member of Generation Y and as an adult living with the younger Generation Z, I noticed that there are things that we experienced in past that are being revived and reinterpreted by the “Pop Culture” today. Prime examples of this are movies and television shows. When I was younger, we used to watch Transformers, X-MEN and Batman on TV. Now they are reinterpreted by the popular culture as Blockbuster movies. There used to be a time when being into Star Wars and Comic Books were just for the Nerds and Geeks. Now, due to popular culture, they are the ones given attention to by the general public.

Another example is poetry reading, which is now being reinterpreted through the popular “Spoken Word” performances. “Balagtasan” was the thing of the past, now we have free style improvisations and Rap Battles.

Fowl and D.N.A. final battle of Red Bull Emsee: The Road to 8 Mile National Championship in Detroit on August 26, 2010

When I was younger Diaries were a normal thing to do for you to express what you feel and what you think secretly. Now younger generation tend to express themselves explicitly through Blogging, Facebook statuses, and Tweeting.

Chain letters also had its fair share of popularity in the past, now they are reinvented through obligatory sharing and re-tweeting of Facebook posts and Tweets. Even language has also evolved from “salitang balbal” (ermat, erpat) to abbreviations like LOL and GTG. Music (remixes and unplugged versions), fashion, and even technology are given different spins or styles tailored for younger people. I can go on and on in giving examples but the thing with culture is that it encompasses many different aspects of who we are as people. Reinterpretation is normal for it proves that culture is dynamic and progressive.