The Influences of Culture

I have a niece and nephew who are now 9 and 8 years old, so for the past few years I ave been seeing lots of different changes among themselves as they grow and enter their teenage years. Their personalities are changing so much! Its interesting to watch the whole process and think about how they become who they are. Although a lot of it seems to be how they are raised by their parents, their personalities and their interests defiantly are inspired by the media they see around them, what their peers are doing, which is ultimately what their culture brings to them. Our culture is heavily influenced by media. For example, my niece wanted this very particular toy, and she HAD to have it. She started collecting things that were all revolved around this idea, you may have heard of it, the famous Grumpy Cat. She wanted a shirt,a teddy,a calendar, I found her googling images of it, she was simply obsessed with it, and at 9 years old too! I asked her where she heard of this "Grumpy Cat" and she said she seen it on TV and that her friends are always talking about it. Her culture, and the environment that she is surrounded by (in this case the media and her peers) influenced her to become obsessed with this cat icon. This is just an small example to show that ones culture can help influences and create ones identity. For example, hypothetically there could be too people that are sisters and both being raised by the same parents and living under the same roof, yet they grow up to be complete polar opposites.  What could cause this may be the specific culture that these sisters belong to. For instance one sister might hang out with people who are into drugs and take part in rebellious acts, while the second sister may hang out with people who are all about horseback riding and farm animals. The environments that these sisters belong too are completely different and what they are interacting with is influencing their personalities. Although this example show how culture on micro level can impact your beliefs, it is synominous at a macro level, meaning that in the big picture culture can impact you. For example, at a macro level the culture you belong to may suggest that killing is wrong, thus you believe that killing is wrong and do not take part in that behaviour. Culture is constantly shaping us!