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Culture encompasses the ideas, values, practices, and material objects that allow a group of people, even an entire society, to carry out their collective lives in relative order and harmony. There are innumerable ideas, values, practices, and material objects associated with most cultures. As a result, no one individual can possibly know them all or what they all mean. But people must know at least the most basic and important elements of their culture. Knowledge of a shared culture leads people to behave in similar ways and to adopt a similar way of looking at the world. However, it is important to remember that there are differences within, as well as between, cultures. This point was reflected in the early 2015 murderous attacks in Paris by Islamic radicals on such cultural symbols as a French humor magazine and a kosher supermarket. There are profound differences in France today among French, Muslim, and Jewish cultures.

Closer to home, consider the cultures of the Bloods and the Crips, two street gangs with origins in Los Angeles in the early 1970s but now existing nationwide (Bichler et al. 2017; Covey 2015; Deutsch 2014). Members of the two gangs distinguish themselves from each other in a variety of ways but most notably by their defining colors—red for Bloods and blue for Crips. These colors and other symbols are very meaningful to gang members, helping them mark territories, easily identify friends and foes, and signify their values. The symbols—and their meanings—have been created by the group itself and passed down from one gang member to another.

In contrast, for those who are not members of the group, an idea, a value, a practice, or an object may have little meaning, may mean something completely different, or may even have no meaning at all. For example, to members of the general public, a spray-painted gang tag may just be a scribble defacing neighborhood property. A person wearing a red shirt is simply wearing a red shirt. The existence of a culture and common knowledge of it are so important that newcomers to any group, especially children, are taught its basic elements early. They then expand on that knowledge as they mature and become more integral members of the group.

At the same time, culture is constantly being affected by changes both internal and external to the group. Among the internal changes are the average age of the population within that group. Depending on whether the average age increases or decreases, a culture will need to reflect the needs and interests of either younger or older people. For example, in the United States and other aging societies, television programs and the advertisements associated with them are more oriented to older people than is the case in societies with increasing numbers of younger people (Carter and Vega 2011). A good example of this is the great popularity, especially among older viewers, of CBS’s NCIS. On the other hand, television certainly cannot and does not ignore its younger audience. The great popularity and cultural influence of Fox’s Empire is indicative of that.

Similarly, cultures need to adapt to other changes, such as a group’s gender composition. For example, today there are more female gang members in general, and this is also true of the membership of the Bloods and the Crips (Goldman, Giles, and Hogg 2014). As a result of this shift, a gang’s culture needs to change to deal with things such as the tasks to be allotted to female members (e.g., carrying concealed weapons) and, more specifically, to those who are pregnant or have young children.

Technological innovations are among the external changes likely to alter a group’s culture significantly. For example, with the growth of smartphone use, texting has become wildly popular as a communication method (including among street gang members), and cell phone conversations have become proportionally less common. Thus, not only newcomers to the group but also those who have participated for years must constantly learn new aspects of culture (e.g., gang members using prepaid “burner” cell phones that are difficult or impossible to trace) and perhaps unlearn others (using traditional cell phones) that are no longer considered desirable.

There are few rules on what should and should not be discussed on a cell phone in places where others, especially strangers, are close enough to overhear what is being said.

Gary Hershorn / Corbis News / Getty Images

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Figure 3.1 Cell Phone Use and Texting-While-Driving Laws, 2019

Source: Map Showing Cellphone Use and Texting While Driving Laws in “Distracted Drivers.” Copyright © National Conference of State Legislatures. Reprinted with Permission.

The near ubiquity of the smartphone has created a whole new set of realities for which clear and firm cultural rules are not yet in place. There are few rules about texting, and those few that do exist are notoriously difficult to monitor and police, especially in settings such as classrooms (Pettijohn et al. 2015). Long, loud, and frequent phone conversations are not a problem in the privacy of one’s home, but they may be a problem in public areas where there is an expectation of quietude, such as at a nice restaurant.

A more formal set of rules, even laws in some places (e.g., Georgia), limiting or banning drivers from talking and texting on handheld cell phones is being developed to control these activities on the part of drivers. It has become apparent—both from insurance company statistics and from experimental research—that using a handheld cell phone while driving increases the risk of accidents (Horrey and Wickens 2006). In 2015, more than a quarter of automobile crashes in the United States involved the use of cell phones while driving (Kunkle 2017). As shown in Figure 3.1, many states have enacted laws against the practice, and some safety advocates are pressing for a similar federal law. If both campaigns succeed, using a handheld cell phone while driving will no longer be culturally acceptable and will in fact become illegal across the nation.

Although we generally accept and learn the various components of culture, sometimes we refuse to comply with, or even accept, them. For example, many continue to talk and text on cell phones while driving even though they know it is illegal and the larger culture and legal system are increasingly characterized by negative views on such behaviors. To take a different example, premarital and extramarital sexual relationships continue to be disapproved of by traditional American culture, but many people have come to reject these ideas and to engage increasingly in these behaviors (on premarital sex, see Elias, Fullerton, and Simpson 2015). Indeed, it could be argued that both these forms of sexual behavior have come to be widely tolerated; premarital sex in particular has become an accepted part of the culture.