Kids: A Concept of Subculture and its Application

The 1995 film "Kids" by Larry Clark poses itself as a drama in which an in-depth look into the urban life of street youth is taken to the extremes as substance abuse, physical violence, and sex creep their way into the lives of a group of adolescent teenagers. Is this image of really all these kids are up to these days or are we just exaggerating? Youth cultures of the 1990's are not so different than the youth cultures of today. The awkward stages of growing up, rough childhoods, outcasted, and disposed of all count a factors toward youth taking to the streets where they find themselves together, where they form a unique bond functioning something like a family that accepts them and looks after them.

Milton Gordon's article: "The Concept of the Subculture and its Application," takes a look at the factors within the subculture that effect different individuals within the same grouping. Gordon's theory on sub-culture and its application suggests that individuals that are part of a culture can be studied more accurately by categorizing "small units of subject matter" that are attributed to the way a person acts and thinks. These units can be factorized by variables such as ethnic background, religion, social class, economic status, and region. These individuals then bend the way they act and think based on a combination of these external factors before presenting themselves to a subculture with a set way of living and behaving. These are what Gordon calls a "unit" which generates a distinction between separate subcultures and separate units in the same subculture.

Maybe, with the help of Gordon's theory, I can try to understand the reason behind what gave these kids the idea that they're invincible and that anything they do won't have negative effects at some point in the future. Well, like Telly said in the end, there isn't much to live for and when you're a kid, nothing else really matters. I'd like to ask why this is so. Is growing up as a middle class white kid in a small Canadian suburb not the same as growing up as a lower class black kid in New York City? I doubt it, but is that any reason for them to possibly enjoy the same activities, same values, and deal with similar problems? It is quite possible that the separate variables of region, social class, and ethnic background have interwoven to become something that is portrayed only through one's character. Whether this character emerges as being good or bad, moral or immoral, it all comes down to the small units of subject matter that depends on the environmental variables that surround an individual during their young life.

In a movie like Kids it is easy to suggest that the immoral standards and the everyday activity of sex and drug abuse among dozens of young children is due to the fact that none of these children has grown up with proper values put in place by positive family influence, role models, or some other form of positive reinforcement to make these kids feel like they don't want to do these sort of things at such a young age. At the same time, it is difficult to tell exactly how every character in the movie turned out the way they did. When you think of fifteen year old kids; dope fiend, sex addict, and date-rapist aren't the first things that come to mind. Times sure are changing.

An Introduction to Subcultures

Since there have been people, there have been cultures; within cultures there are subcultures. But what factors play a role in the creation of subculture? In 1955, a man by the name of Albert Cohen suggested that within these subcultures exists individuals who share common beliefs, judgements, and conflicts; that these individuals choose to cope with these problems with solutions derived from their moral standard (which varies heavily upon social upbringing). When external elements challenge individuals on a daily basis, they are often countered with a solution or an action in which differs than that of individuals located elsewhere; that elsewhere, different problems arise require different action, therefore shaping different individuals.

In Cohen's article, "A General Theory of Subcultures," Cohen explains that upon the assumption of this theory that the self interests and moral standings of another will distress and aggravate the solution/coping strategy/action used to deal with the situation in the first place. Thus the social implications of this nature, in an attempt to avoid this, generates a community of individuals sharing the same ideologies, conflicts, worries, and pleasures where one is not challenged by peers or challenged with a conflict alone. The need for affiliation and pressure toward conformity lead individuals to one another in a new age of digital and social media connection. Even still, within these communities remain individuals who may challenge the greater ordeals or matters in which the larger body of people find important or prioritize. The dissent within these groups often leads to the alienation of individuals which is the catalyst for deviating subcultures comprised of outcasted individuals who pride themselves on their identity different than the majority and practice routines outside the social norm.

Cohen's theory is backed up in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film "Breathless." Godard portrayed the story of a criminal deviant named Michel Poiccard, a cop killing car thief, attempting to convince an American woman to leave France with him to hide in Italy. These two outstanding individuals struggle to live in a normal society, where their hardships, aspirations, motivations, morals and standards differ greatly than that of the general public in the movie especially within the decade that it had been made in post-war Europe. The contrast of the film relative to Cohen's theory made only five years before the film, poses a strong truth. Bewteen the two characters, Michel's strong atrraction to Patricia seems to be loosely based around his facination with her foreign identity. Her strong sense of Western culture and his egotisical view of women in comparison had audiences a little surprises that Patricia had considered leaving with him, however this is not the point. Michel is coming from a social background life of a deviant criminal mind. He is met with daily challenges of a criminal in which he struggles to find solutions for throughout the movie. The everyday challenges of a criminal may not correlate with the daily challenges of a small boy picked on in school or a rich man who goes home to women and champagne. Michel's life is comprised of hiding, theft, and money laundering while at the same time trying to hold onto his sense of humanity through Patricia, an American journalist working abroad in France. Michel's need to have the woman he likes with him in Italy had ultimately costed him in life when Patrricia's moral concious, working on a different levels of morals similar to the population of the majority, had called the police to report him.

There is no arguing that had Patricia's moral upbringing as an independant young American woman had differed greatly from that of Michel's, a mind who's only morals are worrying about criminal intention and getting caught. Going back to Cohen's theory of social uprbringing from different experiences and values, these types of deviant individuals such a Michel emerge out of steps taken to try and solve a challenge or problem that they are encountered with, like Patricia when she was torn between leaving with Michel or reporting him to police. Ultimately, her desicion to have him arrested prevailed out of a moral implication prevailant in the dominant culture of the majority.

The Web Is Dead. Long Live The Internet

In an article written by Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, "The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet," the two discuss the slow death of the world wide web as it is slowly phased out by smartphones, new technology, and Web 2.0. With the new emergence of applications on iPhones and smartphones such as Blackberrys, it is easy to agree the furture of the web is obsolete. People no longer depend on laptop or desktop computers for directions or social networking. They are able to find things like that while on the go or nearly anywhere with a dataplan or WiFi connections. Is this neccessarily a bad thing? The article seems to think yes and no.

“Sure, we’ll always have Web pages. We still have postcards and telegrams, don’t we? But the center of interactive media — increasingly, the center of gravity of all media — is moving to a post-HTML environment, we promised nearly a decade and half ago. The examples of the time were a bit silly — a '3-D furry-muckers VR space' and 'headlines sent to a pager' — but the point was altogether prescient: a glimpse of the machine-to-machine future that would be less about browsing and more about getting." (Anderson,Wolff, 2009)

The Web, they say, is shrinking and rapidly. It was an inevitable fate brought on by the capitalist innovators of the new media. As the innovators come out with new technology to sell like iPhones and smartphones, the past generation of technology is almost immediately phased out. It becomes irrelevant, forgotten, and a dinosaur among people and their peers. New HTML data is the furture of the internet. There is no more coding and fancy ways of typing out a paragraph to publish it. It is all done automatically. Easy and simple and that is the way people want to live and experience the Web these days especially when they are using it on their phone in the middle of no where in particular.

People want things brought to them and given to them. Nobody likes to look and browse through anything. People know exactly what they want and when they want it and they are more than willing to empty their pockets of cash in order to get that service. The web is dying and it is because people want to live an easier life and corporate innovators are looking for new technology to target lazier people with.

The Pirate's Dilemma - Changing the Game Theory

In the final chapter of Matt Mason's book, The Pirates Dilemma, Mason summarizes his points about piracy and its benefits to the social media culture in the past century. He discusses how piracy drives human innovation either to combat piracy or improve media integration into everyday life. Mason touches upon the radio DJs, the remixed culture, and youth counter-cultures of the last half of the 20th century. Mason argues that mass culture needs to look at, analyze, and touch upon youth cultures and look at how they influence media on a day-to-day basis. He argues that piracy and youth culture go hand in hand but they do not act in self interest but the opposite. In today's world of media, either you are a pirate or you will be targeted by one.

"Because all these ideas are coming together in the wider world at the same time, a new period of chaos has ensued as the Information Age has grown into a petulant teenager itself. Now we are all capable of acting like pirates, or being devoured by them. Now we all have to consider what the new conditions of this difficult adolescence mean, and how we should approach them." (Mason, 2008, 232)

Mason's quote outlines the way people react to new media as a means of sharing information across the Web. The Web was created as a means to openly contribute and share the information that is put fourth no matter what kind. People cannot expect to add information via the Web without expecting knowing that their information is going to be looked at and shared. We can't lie. The reason we put information out there is for people to see either subconsciously or consciously. There is no way around it. Unless people want their information shared with hundreds or even thousands, keep it on paper...and don't let it fall into a scanner.

People and pirates alike cannot act in self interest over the Web. The answer to the Pirate's Dilemma lies in the game theory of working together to achieve the best goal right for everyone. If everyone assumes that everyone is acting in self interest, they too will act in self interest for what is best for them. In the end, doing so will result in both parties getting the short end of the stick. The theory behind acting in self interest dominates the forces of politics, economics, decision making, and psychology. Yes, everyone knows musicians, artists, and media industries hate piracy and would love to destroy it. But really, the answer to stopping piracy is not awareness and it certainly isn't tainting files with spyware. The answer is, there isn't anything anyone can do about it except accept it. Awareness doesn't work. Nobody cares, seriously. If people can get away with stealing something they want with no remorse, they'll do it. If people actually cared about the industry they were stealing from, they would actually pay to support it. They should feel lucky that half the people willing to rip off the media industry aren't able to either because they don't know how or because they don't have the right software. That is why people still shoplift CDs and DVDs, then get caught. Piracy is not encouraged and it certainly isn't tolerated but really, what more can people do? It's the easiest and, sometimes, the only way for people to obtain media and consume it.

Yes, piracy is needed but to a certain extent. One pirate will not obstruct the entire media industry but people who feel the need to become pirates themselves are not only putting themselves at risk but also putting the industry at risk. One opposed to one billion pirates is a huge difference but it is also hypothetical. In short, don't be a pirate...but support them.

The Pirate's Dilemma - Boundaries

We have all seen new forms of media come and go over the past century. One of those forms was the record disc and its uncanny ability to record sound for the first time in history. People came together from all over town and gathered in houses, dance halls, and disco lofts to socialize, party, and connect with one another while being able to escape their daily lives. Before the internet this is what people relied on for social interaction and open source entertainment.

In chapter five of Matt Mason's book, The Pirates Dilemma, Mason discusses the revolutionized movement of youth culture from the 1950's and 1960's and how their social ideas drove them to develop new forms of media to build social interaction. It is exactly like how youth culture from the 1960's had encouraged them to hold dance parties in lofts, collect records, and find new methods to get high or get together. For youth, the desire to be together with friends had driven them to become productive in order to create faster and easier ways to connect and have fun. Mason also argues that the computer had been invented by young adults whose views were shaped on hippie psychedelic social ideas were integrated into the PC's development.

"The PC, as we shall now see, also was designed to be a social machine like the Loft—a way of sharing information that offered new freedoms and possibilities while posing a serious threat to some oppressive systems of old. It has since birthed what is known as the open-source movement, which started out as a way to build computer operating systems but is fast becoming a design for life...The great transformative technology of our lifetime was more than just a triumph of engineering and finance. It was, just as compellingly, the result of a concerted effort by a group of visionaries—fuelled by progressive values, artistic sensibilities and the occasional mind altering drug—to define the idea of what a computer could be: a liberating tool to expand and enrich human potential." (Mason, 2008, 143)

During the later half of the 20th century, phonographic music industries feared the new emergence of the cassette tape and home recording would kill the record music business, yet, in fact, it was the opposite. This new form of media allowed music DJs and music listeners to share the experience of music with one another and almost instantly, the dance lofts were brought into the home. It was the first form of file sharing and like file sharing, it was despised by music industries from all over the world. Yet, there was little that could be done to stop the sharing of files and illegal downloading of software, music, and media. Web 2.0 is a mass media form used to collect and distribute information and other forms of media and was the perfect catalyst for the Pirate's Dilemma. With the help of Web 2.0, people are no longer restricted by boundaries or obstacles in the search for new media entertainment and social interaction. The personal computer and web freed people from the world restricted by boundaries and distances and people are now able to share media with each other now more than ever.

We Invented the Remix

In Matt Mason’s book, The Pirate’s Dilemma, Mason discussed the prospect of remixed culture and what it held in the wake of the “free culture.” The remixed culture is a new wave of media produced by media consumers who edit and add their own expressions, art, and opinions into the work of others for nearly any reason whether it be for entertainment, fun, or even blackmail. The remixed culture, Mason argues, is a “conscious process used to innovate and create,” and to take something that already exists and redefining it to how you want to see it in your own vision. Mason argues that even through remixed culture “raises questions about the nature of creativity and originality,” the remixed culture has evolved into something bigger; a mass movement by artists and media consumers that spans across hundreds of different industries. But if remixed culture is so controversial and “uncreative,” why is it so popular?

The remixed culture is nothing to be thought of as “new.” It is instead a long history of artists and musicians coming together and mixing different sounds and beats. The remixed culture started the disco, the hip hop, and dance halls. It is a culture that is even bigger today than ever, and still, it keeps growing. Now with the aid of the internet, more and more people have access to music, video, and file sharing. They can share their work with others. Some will find it funny, others will find it cool, and the rest will hate it. And while people are out sharing their new version of someone else’s song, people will be coming up with new and easier ways to remix and reinvent popular culture and make it their own.

“The remix is gradually winning the war with a paranoid entertainment industry, proving itself to be a valuable form of expression, levelling playing fields for artists and entrepreneurs, and constructing new meaning to from old material. The last battle is in sight. It is the future of the past, and perhaps the ultimate democracy, open to infinite criticism, reinterpretation, and improvement.” (Mason, 2008, 101)

The Pirate's Dilemma - The Tao of Pirates

Matt Mason's book, The Pirate's Dilemma, openly discusses how youth culture is responsible for shaping and re-shaping remixed culture and consumerism. Mason argues that the pirating of products such as digital entertainment and copyright infringement is necessary for its distribution and improvement on all levels of development. In the second chapter, Mason talks about the history of piracy and it's roots in Britain and the United States in the early 20th century. He discusses how piracy was actually responsible for the TV networks, radio, and web culture people see today. He argues that piracy should be praised for its hand in the progressive evolution of remixed culture that it openly shared world wide. Mason suggests that without piracy, there is no choices to be made in media in the sense that people are limited to the media they consume through financial stability and geographic location. He quotes: "Pirates highlight areas where choice doesn't exist and demand that it does. And this mentality transcends media formats, technological changes, and business models. It is a powerful tool that once understood, can be applied anywhere." (Mason, 2008, 46)

Though some may find areas to disagree with Mason, his arguement on piracy offers something more than just telling people to share "stolen" media. He talks about the momentum of the free people, the boundaries that restrict people from experiencing new forms of media, and how piracy shapes the world we live in today. Mason raises the points of pirate radio in Britain of the 1960's as well as the Sealand sea fort that was used to house "illegal information" in international waters for people willing to pay to keep it there. He uses these examples in history to bring forward a new premise that people need to understand; piracy is a necessity in the development of social media and remixed culture. He suggests that piracy is a valid marketing flaw and that those in that market should consider pirates as a competitor as opposed to a problem.

On the talk of Web 2.0, people are contributing what they want to whoever they want via the web. People are bringing each other all kinds of new media from all over the world every second.

"Pirate radio gave everyone the chance to become DJs, but today a new connection to the internet is all you need to broadcast to the entire world. Individuals with the pirate mentality are using the web to become journalists, comedians, porn stars, prophets, TV producers, and many other things besides, and it is quite conceivable that the media may one day be conquered by pirates all together." (Mason, 2008, 48)

It can be argued that nearly everyone on Web 2.0 is a pirate. What people seem to forget is that this new generation of pirates are not outlaws but instead are a generation of people pressed on sharing new ideas and media through different medium without even knowing it. This is the pirate mentality and when piracy is all about. People no longer have to rely on professional news journalism when all they need to do is look up someone's blog and contribute to it. Whether or not the net is expanding for the better is all relative; but we mustn't forget that all of it is expanding because of people with the pirate mentality.