StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Individuals in Consumer Society - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Individuals in Consumer Society" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues in the individuals in consumer society. Today's individuals are still subject to the trap that Mill described over 40 years ago. Individuals feel they are trapped (as indeed they are)…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.8% of users find it useful
Individuals in Consumer Society
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Individuals in Consumer Society"

It has a connection with the world's history that cannot be grasped, and where “personal experience is politically useless, and our political will a minor illusion”. It is where private troubles do not seem to be any concern of the public, where the large and grand concerns of society as a whole, including government, are oftentimes seemingly irrelevant to everyday life.

Today's “consumer society” has further strengthened this trap. Since the industrial age, social bonds that were previously an essential part of everyday life have become only secondary concerns amidst the new forms of collective behavior espoused by large commercial institutions, where individuality is no longer valued. Individuals are now replaceable cogs in a wheel, not an essential part of anything deemed “important” in the grand scheme of things.

It is true what Mills says: an increasing awareness of events in the wide world leads to an increasing awareness of one's powerlessness, with the seeming irrelevance of everyday life amidst the workings of contemporary society, “with its alienating methods of production, its enveloping techniques of political domination”, so that individuals are not able to fully understand the greater sociological patterns related to their private troubles.

Examples are everywhere. One is the women of today; feminism and related movements, while ensuring that women are no longer relegated to being “domestic goddesses”, also throw them into ambivalence about their roles in the family. The value of the home is compromised, and the values of modern society are sometimes at odds with the traditional expectations of women as homemakers.

There is now, as has long been the case, a huge gap between the top and the bottom rungs of society. The ever-unflagging rate of suicides, the prevalence of drug abuse, homeless persons, and the depression, of those on the brink of suicide, all point to this perceived lack of connection between the public and private spheres.

Modern work trends do not make for adequate social ties and fulfillment. Alienation is furthered by current trends of customer priority, where customer service involves commercialized and systematized pleasantness and warmth toward total strangers. In this time of prevalent corporate-mindedness, people are unsatisfied and insecure.

It is true, however, that "neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both". Mill's idea of sociological imagination should enable us to understand these forces that influence our lives and to see how individual concerns in work, family, neighborhood, etc. are connected to more general social realities.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Trap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1501701-trap
(Trap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1501701-trap.
“Trap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1501701-trap.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Individuals in Consumer Society

Critical Analysis of Zygmunt Bauman's Consumer Life

Rorty supports fresh and advanced manner of writing about the society.... Nevertheless, he merely identifies that if sociologists need to debate persuasively for new customs of understanding the world, they have to acknowledge that they cannot turn to any introductory principles for justifying that their view of the society is superior to other people.... What can be derived from reading the chapter is that he wanted to give a wider attitude of criticizing the current consumer while at the same time overemphasizing the preceding solid modern society....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment

Consumer Culture and Factors Influencing Behavior

The paper "consumer Culture and Factors Influencing Behavior" describes that taste is not only affected by demand and supply, natural inclinations or mere preferences, or even considerations of functionality or economics but results from an interplay of multiple, complex factors.... With increased commoditization and standardization of food and food products, consumer tastes have been increasingly eroded, while their choices have been increasingly constrained in terms of options....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Groups Influence on Consumer Behaviour

This paper "Groups' Influence on consumer Behaviour" discusses individuals that do not live in isolation.... In specific reference to India, cultural factors are thought to wield much effect on consumer behaviour.... Culture passes as the most fundamental factor that determines what a consumer requires.... It equally affects the behaviour of individuals.... It is on this basis that culture is presumed to play a significant role in addressing the consumption behaviour of individuals....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Ethical Consumer Behaviour

"Ethical consumer Behaviour" paper sheds light on the individual consumer factors as well as the broader collective and societal issues that motivate and drive ethical consumer behavior.... Apart from that opportunities and challenges of ethical consumer behavior are also presented.... The study revealed that the factors or the issue that fosters ethical consumer behavior are age, the maturity of the individual, and emotions....
5 Pages (1250 words) Coursework

Belks Theories of Consumer Behavior

The paper "Belks Theories of consumer Behavior" assesses varying blog posts on the extended self, and how they are correlated to Belk's and Goffman's ideologies on the self.... Present-day consumer behavior needs are analyzed with a lot of keenness of the factors leading to consumer purchasing.... Belk and Goffman have been instrumental in an analysis of the various aspects of the self that have been fundamental in shaping consumer behavior....
8 Pages (2000 words) Term Paper

Relationship between Individuals Personality and Consumption of Luxury Brands

Luxury goods are defined as those goods the possession and display of which elevates the owner's prestige in the society apart from contributing to any functional utility.... Luxury goods are defined as those goods the possessionand display of which elevates the owner's prestige in the society apart from contributing to any functional utility.... Luxury goods are defined as those goods the possessionand display of which elevates the owner's prestige in the society apart from contributing to any functional utility....
10 Pages (2500 words)

Consumer Behavior of People Who Purchase Behavior

This paper 'consumer Behavior of People Who Purchase Behavior' seeks to analyze and put into the perspective consumer purchase decision of people, who consume beer.... In the modern dispensation, many individuals, including the young and old consume much of the alcoholic content due to its improved nature....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Improvement in the Concept of Consumers Society

The paper "Improvement in the Concept of Consumers' Society" discusses that the consumer society can therefore be described as either seduced or repressed where the wealthy get a taste of all the goodies provided within the consumer society while the poor remain marginalized.... The essay is also based on an adequate understanding of consumer society as covered by the unit's materials as well as the lectures from the tutor.... An adequate understanding of concepts like consumption as well as a consumer society, its history as well as evolution was provided and covered in the unit materials....
10 Pages (2500 words) Lab Report
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us