Cultural Capital

Many people involve themselves in forms of fandom, cultural capital, and social media, but how far can you take it before it completely consumes you? When does it, or does it even, change from just being a source of enjoyment to a source of happiness and self-worth? I will be responding against the comment “cults of celebrity, fandom, the accumulation of cultural capital, and abuse of social media are all examples of people turning to others for happiness and self-worth” and arguing that only cults of celebrity, fandom, and abuse of social media are examples of people turning to others. Many people within many cultures have celebrities that they follow and most often this can be completely normal and doesn’t affect someone’s life. However

In Holts article, he states that cultural capital “consists of a set of socially rare and distinctive tastes, skills, knowledge, and practices.” While he explains that there are two different groups of people within cultures, the low cultural capital people and the high cultural capital people, these groups are involved in cultural capital to enrich their lives, not as an alternative to their lives. Many people involve themselves in the enjoyment of artwork, literature, and hobbies but instead of revolving their lives around such cultural capital in order to acquire a sense self-worth, they use it to increase their happiness within their overall life. However, it can get to the point where people dedicate their time to explain to people that there is only one way they can participate in a form of cultural capital. This can be seen in the video shown in class that is essentially hating on modern art and asking people to no longer support it, for reasons the speaker personally believes are true. This is also evident in the book “The Painted Word” by Tom Wolfe because his whole book is written to explain how only the cultural capital he appreciates should be appreciated, and the rest is not good or aloud. When it gets to the point that it consumes you so much, your self-worth is placed upon you making sure everyone is involved in that cultural capital as