Peyton Henderson
Youth 220
10/29/18
Context of My Experience
For my youth culture experience I went to Scaremare with a few of my friends. The event is
worked by the students at Liberty University and I had many friends working there when I went.
I didn’t really know what to expect when I first went into the experience, whether I would be
scared or not. It ended up being a lot of fun and the students running it did a fantastic job.
Everything about the event was so much fun. The students did a pretty good job at staying in
character which must have bene very difficult. Throughout the event there were moments that I
was scared and there were moments where I couldn’t stop laughing. Towards the end I would
make conversation with the students running the event. I would try to see if they would break
character, but they did a great job. The students that gave a message spoke so well and the Lord
really worked through them.
Components of Culture
I observed all of the components of culture that we discussed in class. I observed roles,
symbols, customs, fads, trends, and styles all within the group that I came with, the other people
put in a group with us, and with the students who were running the event. My friend Annalise
played a huge role in the experience. She was the pacesetter, when she got scared everyone else
got nervous and when she was laughing at the people, we would do the same. For the symbol, all
the girls in the group I came in happened to wear converse. Although we laughed at the time
converse are a very basic trend that have lasted for a long time. They’re considered “basic” shoes
which after all of us wore them showed to be very true. For the custom, my senior friends that
ran Scaremare told me that after they finished every day they worked throughout the past four
years they all went out to cookout to eat. This became the custom for them since they started
working their freshman year. A fad that started was everyone that was put in a group together
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Peyton Henderson
Youth 220
10/29/18
would end up all holding hands. My friends that worked the event said that most of the groups
they saw would be a mix of people that didn’t know each other and somehow, they all ended up
holding hands. A trend that I noticed was people attending the group attempting to scare or make
fun of the people working the event. Finally, a style that I saw just the costumes worn by both the
people working and by the people attending. Lots of people attended Scaremare in their own
costumes.
Status Types
There were all sorts of status types at Scaremare. In my group alone, there was a pace setter
and then participators. My friend Annalise was the pace setter while the rest of us followed what
she did. There was a group of about seven girls who were put in a group with us to go through
the event. They were all sophomores in high school and had all sorts of status types. There was
the pace setter of the group who seemed to be the leader. All the other girls were trying to talk
and stand by this girl. What seemed to be her closest friend was more of the rebel type. She was
messing with everyone working and messing up all the stuff in the building we went through.
The rest of the girls in the group were participators. They were just following the crowed and
what others were doing. There was a couple in the group in front of us who were very clearly an
outsider and loner. They wore all black and both had colored hair. They didn’t really seem to care
too much about what was going on, but it was in a rebellious way. They just seemed to be doing
their own thing while they were there and didn’t really interact with other people.
Enculturation
Especially when youth come as a group to events like this, it’s very easy for enculturation to
occur. Youth tend to already have their skills, views, attitudes and values that put them into
different roles and allow them to be functioning members of a subculture. Teens are good at
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Peyton Henderson
Youth 220
10/29/18
picking up trends and what is normal to do at an event. At Scaremare, it’s okay to scream and be
scared and to hold hands with people you don’t really know. You’re able to make fun of the
people working too without it being bad. It’s normal or people to do. Since it’s cold out its
commons sense for the teens to dress warm and even in costumes if they want because this is
also acceptable in this setting. Since teens are running the event it’s easy for them to break
character and laugh along with the youth attending the event. It’s easy to pick up on the culture
of Scaremare.
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