WEIRD American Culture

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WEIRD American Culture

In present times, Western culture has been discerned as the leading proponent of filming through POV cameras. Critics of POV cameras would argue that POV filming mechanisms encourage the world to entrench their entire lives in cameras. Others argue that American culture has been misconstrued as the epitome of human social standards. In spite of this, POV cameras have contributed to the growth of WEIRD American culture by inducing inspiration through global recognition. Therefore, by clarifying the strengths and weaknesses of POV cameras, it will be clear that these filming mechanisms have been crucial to the transformation of WEIRD American culture.

People develop different dispositions to American culture since they tend to view such values from different focal lenses. For that reason, Watters stated that human beings “shape a tool in a certain manner, or think about fairness in a particular way, not because we individually have figured out that behavior’s adaptive value, but because we instinctually trust our culture to show us the way” (500). From those captions, American culture is perceived as the peak of worldly standards. With that said, it is evident that POV cameras allow human beings to understand the intricacies of WEIRD American culture.

The misconception that people only record dangerous stunts for attention and money is misguided since these are not the only reasons that elucidate why people use POV cameras. Pamgaurten defends GoPro cameras by stating that people undertake risks and record them not only to create eternal memories but also to spark inspiration in others (336). For example, one can gain inspiration from GoPro fail videos such as the cliff video created by Stefan Ager. Even though Ager’s failed video focused on how he plummeted down a cliff, it will be realized that the bravery he captured during that fall was eternally etched in the memories of the viewers.

Waaters and Paumgarted accurately depicted the hidden truths of POV cameras as well as their implications for WEIRD American culture. Foremost, POV cameras tend to depict the reality of American life since they divulge day-to-day happenings from the perspectives of ordinary Americans. As a result, a large diversity of people from all over the world has been enlightened to the significance of creating eternal memories through such filming mechanisms. In summary, it is clear that POV cameras have been a root cause of the propagation of WEIRD American culture.

Works Cited

Ethan Watters’ “Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind”: pp. 492-502

Paumgarten, Nick. "We are a Camera: Experience and memory in the age of GoPro." The

New Yorker 22 (2014): 331-341