4.1 Cultural Context

Cultural Phenomenon

What are the biggest cultural phenomenons in 2023

  • Oppenheimer and Barbie
  • Swifties
  • Cybertruck
  • Skibidi toilet

Many people are part of subcultures and niches

Mr. Poon ‘would not like to share’ what subcultures he participates in

Subtopic 4.1 has four subcategories

  • A. Arts, entertainment, and pop culture
    • Rizz
    • Looksmaxxing
    • Mewing
    • Jujutsu Kaisen
    • Skibidi toilet
    • Blue smurf cat
    • Josh Hutcherson - ‘Whistle’
    • ‘-core’ suffix
    • Grimace shake
  • B. Home, leisure and tourism
  • C. Heritage, customs, and traditions
  • D. Subcultures

Culture is moving faster and faster 

What are memes?

  • Memes can have all types of forms
  • They don’t stay relevant forever

How do memes influence society and notes?

  • Creates sense of community and connection
  • Connect with people globally

Quote

‘Memes are like fashion, they don’t stay relevant forever’ -Michael Hu, 12 Jan 2023

In 2024, absurdism is a main component of memes

  • Gen Z memes, such as grimace shake, skibidi toilet, etc
  • The reason why Gen Z finds absurd things funny is widespread depression
  • Not as easily stimulated emotionally due to overload of memes

Social media is being more flexible with memes

  • Giving creators more freedom
  • People get desensitised to dark things

Home, Leisure, and Tourism

Internet of Things

A system of interrelated computing devices, mechanicals, and digital machines, objects, animals, or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction

  • Encompasses everything connected to the internet

  • Objects that ‘talk’ to each other

  • Multiple IoTs together can create an ecosystem

Security issues

  • Can be hacked
  • Measures: 
  • Two factor authentication
  • Secure password
  • etc

Gaming, sports, and leisure

  • Enabled by technologies such as internet, live replay, platforms such as AirBnB

Gig Economy

  • Enabled by platforms such as AirBnB, Uber, Doordash, etc
    • Platforms control a lot of your job
  • Considered freelance work
    • Need to factor in labour insurance / retirement savings, etc
    • Deductions and expenses can cut into earnings
    • Workers can set their own schedules and work hours, but sometimes can be controlled by app as well
    • Apps frequently take a large commission, and may leave the worker liable