Making meaning of popularity
When I started teaching my elective on Science Communication in Popular Media this semester, I asked my students: What does it mean for something to be popular?
Their answer matched the definition of pop culture scholars, such as Harold E. Hinds Jr.: Something popular is widely known across geographic and demographic divides.
Hinds, however, is also critical of this definition because its measurement often relies on surveys alone, the results of which might differ depending on sampling, current events, even the time of day! This means that popularity as a concept has to be questioned constantly.
So I asked my students: What is it that makes something popular?
One said that popular things are of high quality; the rest of the class quickly contradicted him. Another said that popular things matched many people’s experiences. An exchange ensued on relatability and emotional appeals.
We never resolved the debate—as well as we should because I posed a trick question.
Popularity baptizes an object with nothing. Popularity does not guarantee goodness.
None of that nonsense of a misinterpretation of Vox Populi, Vox Dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). The original form of the phrase referred to people who argued rationally in places that encouraged reflection. The more precise version is this: the voice of reason is the voice of God.
So why do many people keep equating popularity with virtue?
Perhaps the answer can be informed by research exploring popularity at a personal level. For this, I draw from Tessa A.M. Lansu and colleagues in a 2022 article in Emerging Adulthood; Gabriella Conti and colleagues in a 2013 article in The Journal of Human Resources; and psychologist Mitch Prinstein.
If we define popularity through how many people remember you as their friend, then research says that such a number might measure one’s skills in building relationships, meeting the demands of different social situations, and recognizing the unique needs of diverse social groups.
Research on college students, however, shows varying definitions of popularity. Some associate it with being respected and liked, while others see it as power. As students grow older, however, they tend to equate popularity more with being caring and open, although some also associate popularity with aggression (but as a method to gain popularity, rather than an automatic character trait assigned to those who are popular).
Therefore, with increasing age, there might be a tendency not to begin one’s reasoning with “This is popular, so it must be good” but with the reverse: “This is good, so it should be popular.”
This means that as we mature, we must also nuance the nature of popularity.
First, we have to recognize the two types of popularity according to Prinstein: likability, which has to do with goodness and righteousness; and status or one’s position in a hierarchy. To pursue only status, at the cost of goodness, is a trap many people fall into when they become the proverbial jerks who manipulate or murder their way to the top.
That is not to say that one shouldn’t have ambitions—but they should not be entertained while burning blessings, bridges, and bodies. Upward mobility without righteousness is evil.
Second: to begin one’s reasoning with “this one is good, so it should be popular” also means that one first scrutinizes a popular object or person on the basis of principles, regardless of the popular thing’s number of supporters, regardless of the outcome of the popular person’s wrongdoing. The end does not justify the means.
And if that something or someone is found wanting? Then a mature and discerning mind rejects it.
Because a mature and discerning mind doesn’t confuse likability with status, and doesn’t equate likability with being right—especially in a world where being right has lost its roots in righteousness and morality, and is instead assumed after widespread validation.
So: what does it mean for something to be popular?
Not much—but scrutiny of that which is popular can also reveal much about the people paying attention.
For example: if your idol doesn’t value human life, then what does that say about you?
No one is exempted from criticism, investigation, and justice—certainly not those who hide their sins behind their popularity.
No matter how many people sing to you on your birthday, no matter how many of your followers whine online, no matter how frequently your trolls haunt social media—the fact remains that thousands lost their lives in a war you waged with neither strategy nor compassion.
And your trolls and supporters, who were once thinking folk, became the kinds of creatures who put popularity before discernment—the way that lazy teachers assess their students using Facebook likes and shares, thereby outsourcing their judgment to the mob.
Because no matter how many chants, cheers, and songs are made in your name, there is only one word that true justice waits for.
Guilty.
It won’t be a popular word. But it will be right.
