Social Issues & Us

Social Issues & Us

    Artist have demonstrated from time to time again issues that plague our world and cause economic, social, and mental issues. These issues hold equal importance as one ultimately leads to another. The starting line of these issues takes place with social status and the issue that continues to grow negatively deeper with more access with the internet. We have become a society that focuses more on one’s image versus one’s character and morals. Money, power, and fame seem to be the new American Dream with no regard of how to make it. This increasing issue has caused many people to forget their morals, commit fraud, scam others, and betray close friends and family members. Many artist have tried to combat this issue with works of art that portray the negative outcomes of someone whom cares more about their social statue.

    You can look at art and see that it holds a more solid stance with activism versus political activism. Society listens to politicians and they feel no sense of honesty or loyalty. A politician only wants a person’s vote and will say anything to acquire it. When it comes to art, it is something that takes time. An artist takes their time to draw, paint, create, write, or any other form of art to spread their message. This is the first step into gaining trust with the observer. It is the message that is then seen or heard that helps captivate the audience. This holds more weight over a political speech to the everyday person as they see through the eyes of the artist, someone who has a message and wants nothing in return but to be heard.

    

    As quoted from Nato Thompson, Social Capital has become the representation of someone’s power within a group of people or how one is seen by others. Thompson uses Ivy league colleges in his example by stating one who is simply born into this field of people automatically holds weight within society. It is because of this, people strive to be accepted into Ivy League schools and sometimes at any cost. If it is not going to an Ivy, the overall image of obtaining wealth or appearing wealthy plagues our society. As per Thompson, we care much about our image that we lie to ourselves and others, almost as good as politicians. People purchase cars they cannot afford, rent luxurious homes to appearances, and max out credit cards to purchase clothes or accessories that are not required. These actions all have one end goal which is to provide observers the perception of wealth. Behind the scenes, there is a stressful situation waiting to explode. The need for social acceptance then leads to economic stress in the fact that monthly payments on these luxurious items are missed. Last, mental issues come about regarding stress and a person’s mental state.

     The are many forms of Art that artist utilize to try to spread awareness. Through music, Kanye West produce the album “The College Dropout” which is arguably one of Kanye’s best albums. The album demonstrates the struggle of African Americans during everyday life and how every day is a fight. He mentions in the track “All Falls Down” he purchases cars, jewelry, and clothes all before buying a house, assets, or even saving money. Another lyric “Man I spent $400 bucks on this/ Just to be like dude you aint up on this”, this is sign of gaining social capital to appear wealthy and above others. In addition, the album also focuses on the desire for those that want to obtain social capital by college degrees. There is skit that mocks a father who stayed in school his entire life to obtain degree after degree. In the end, he didn’t put his degrees to use because he passed away and all he accomplished was years of school. The message to understand that college is important for networking and learning new things but working extremely hard could also lead to the same amount of success.

    Banksy is well known street artist, internationally known for his graffiti work that sends a message. One of his most famous works and one that defines the generation we are in today would be the little crying child with the social networking notifications above his head. This symbolizes the desire that we now crave in the world, social media attention. Numerous people have been called out for posting fake photos of their lifestyle or even posting photos that destroy a person’s character and morals. With a simple post and the proper hast tags, you can be seen by the world as a millionaire, political power, attractive male or female, or whatever your imagination comes up. With a lack of “likes” it lowers the confidence of a person, thus making them go to further extremes to get additional likes and fans. This is the world that we have evolved into and the power of social media has handcuffed society.

      In the end, we ultimately choose the routes we take. We can either follow the rule of social media or try to play the game as clean as possible. Nothing is wrong with maintaining a social following, growing a fan base, or striving for higher goals. It is the fear of failing, the fear of non-importance that makes society take extreme measures for attention. Recently, a pregnant woman shot and killed her boyfriend on YouTube. How? The stunt was to show how a thick text book could stop a bullet and sadly, the stunt failed. There is no logical reasoning as to why a person would shoot another for a stunt, especially if they lack training or are not stunt experts. The goal was to gain more followers, which lead to someone losing their life.