Global Youth Culture

While discussing characteristics of youth cultures in South Africa and Singapore, we came across a theory that in fact there is a new phenomena developing around the world called the "Global Youth Culture.

The following passage was picked out of a sociological paper by Richard Kahn and Douglas Kehller:

"Global youth culture is the transdisciplinary category by which theorists and policy analysts attempt to understand the emergence of the complex forms of hybrid culture and identity that increasingly occur amongst youth throughout the world due to the proliferation of media like film, television, popular music, the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their everyday lives. While some measure of hybridity is a common aspect of culture generally, and the global exchange of products, people, culture, and identities, has characterized all colonial histories, recent corporate globalization and the corresponding rise of a so-called Information Society based on new media technologies has produced a particularly dynamic media culture."

Basically, the cultures of the youth around the world, homogenizing and diversifying, are in fact merging into a collective culture that appears to be uniform around the world. This is primarily because of globalization and the increasing media accessibility as mentioned above. The youth is generally the most media and technologically literate sector and MNC's that trade in globale media commodities actively target the youth in most countries.

This is most evident in the type of music that South African youth and Singaporean youth enjoy. Both have an overlap of music genres that are popular in their respective cultures and globally. Its really interesting because the attitudes of the youth are also somewhat similar.

The youth are constantly responding to and identifying with modernized Western ideas and culture. There is a huge influence of the West both in South Africa and in Singapore. Yes, they have their respective multicultural societies and deal with different dynamics, traditions, etc, but at the end of the day, the youth share a similar set of interests, attitudes and behaviors.