Technology and Capitalism - Essay Example

Basic Composition R3 Teacher Final Draft Technology and Capitalism In From the Frying Pan into the Fire, Arlie Russell Hochschild pondered on aQuaker Oat ad and found the underlying variable that defines American society and capitalism today – efficiency. This advertisement peg for his discourse allowed Hochschild to strongly argue that American society is currently being flooded by goods and services that promises people – busy people – of saving their precious time. Meanwhile, Sherry Turkle discourse on technology in Alone Together reinforced this take on capitalism today by explaining how tools and machines such as the Internet, personal computers, mobile phones and gadgets all became indispensable in modern way of life. Capitalism and Efficiency The concept of efficiency has been put forward in Hochschild’s culture of time (184). The argument is that in modern America, people are faced with the time dilemma. Most individuals have to balance personal/family life with work and career and all things in between. Here, the experience of American mothers was used as an example. With the Quaker Oats ad, it was depicted how mothers find it extremely challenging to spend quality time with their children when their job and occupations are also vying for an equal degree of attention. Hochschild identified that breakfast cereal – as suggested by its marketer – emerged as the solution for the dilemma. Modern capitalism made this possible. The oat brand is delicious and healthy, solving several problems for children as it provides a quality mother-child experience at the breakfast table and solves the child’s requirement for attention, love and well-being. The deliciously prepared oat meal, which any child will supposedly love is seen to qualify as sufficient for parents in order for them to let their children know they are loved and taken cared of. Finally, the oatmeal and the ease in its preparation provided the mother an opportunity to lessen time spent at home so she could be at her work or at her appointment on time. Turkle’s discourse on technology further explained Hochschild’s conception of time, efficiency and the permeation of goods and services that cater to the past two variables. She used technology and how it affected the lives of people today as the basis for her insights. The analogy is that technology has successfully ingratiated itself in the lives of people today because it addresses their main vulnerabilities. For instance, Turkle argued that people today are lonely and technology provides a convenient and perfect answer by providing an illusion of companionship without the demand for friendship (263). The pattern is clear: people are becoming dependent on the goods and services that can meet their demands for time and efficiency. The consequence is that people are increasingly substituting them for what is real. Substitution In Hochschild’s observation, people still value the conventional concepts of human relationship such as the family. Here, work and all other preoccupations are supposedly being undertaken in order for the family to survive and, do so comfortably. Ironically, this brings them further to it because the culture of work relegated family as a mere ideal, separate from what is real. To many people, wrote Hochschild, family is important morally and that they certainly cherish such ideal but “we don’t link what we think with what we do,” or we often say at work that we “don’t walk the talk at home (186). This perspective – the encapsulation of family as a mere ideal - supposedly make people reconcile the dilemma of the competing meanings in modern capitalism and its impact on modern necessities to traditional concepts such as the family. With technology, Turkle, provided several examples to this emerging preference for illusion and the substitution of goods and services for what is real. She pointed out, for instance: Some people are looking for robots to clean rugs and help with the laundry. Others hope for a mechanical bride. As sociable robots propose themselves as substitutes for people, new networked devices offer us machine-mediated relationships with each other, another kind of substitution” (264). Turkle implied that with technology, a means by which people satisfy personal necessities is being achieved. It is like the concept of family, love, companionship, friendship, and others are being achieved according to their own terms, not unlike a product, which characteristics are tailor-made according to their preferences. Take the case of television. People are drawn to it because it satisfies our need for human contact – it offers an illusion of presence. When it is on, we have the feeling that there others present in our living room, that we are participating in their lives. But we could always turn it off, underscoring the fact that we could have emotional distance when we no longer want to be involved or shutting personal contact when necessity dictates as work beckons, for instance. Distance The offshoot of the ongoing trends in capitalism as aggravated by several variables such as technology, people are increasingly becoming distant from each other. There is the fact that people increasingly want more money. Hochschild, for instance, cited statistics about how money is replacing family as people’s idea of the good life (187). This brings us back to the previously cited argument of encapsulating family as ideal and no longer linking what we think of it with what we do. According to Hochschild, the modern capitalism made people work for long hours and acquire a lot of money and spend it in huge amounts because that is our way in saying I love you today. Instead of spending time together and other traditional rituals entailed in family life and human relationships, people’s actions substitute things that can be bought, underscoring how capitalism has successfully created a cultural and highly secular system “the most profane activities (making a living, shopping), provides a sense of the sacred” and that “what began as a means to an end – capitalism the means – a good living as the end – has become an end in itself” (188). Turkle suggested that this phenomenon might have been hastened by the way technology provides a better alternative to what is real. For instance, while gadgets and machines have been used in order to make our way of life easier, it is also increasingly being used to create a second life in the digital world, wherein people are “a lot younger, thinner, and better dressed” (263). Turkle explained that this type of developments as offered by technology allows us to hide from each other even as we are tethered to each other” (263). The offshoot is that people are becoming more and more disconnected with each other. When one needs to talk with another, he or she would turn to a mobile phone or a computer. Here, intimacy is already being redefined, with technology as the architect. Conclusion Hochschild’s explanation of modern capitalism is defined by people’s obsession for efficiency. This resulted in the permeation of goods and services that allow people to reconcile the traditional values and necessities with their work. The result is that people are becoming more disconnected with each other, preferring to use tools, machines and goods in their relationship with each other. The idea is that these could substitute reality and concepts such as love and intimacy. This is highlighted in Turkle’s discourse on technology, where machines such as computer, mobile phones and robots are increasingly being desired, turning them into modern-world necessities. Within the paradigm presented by Hochschild, Turkle explained that technology has engineered the way people behave, influencing their relationships and consumption decisions. Unfortunately, this has led to the diminished role of traditional concepts such as the family and the disconnection of people from each other. Works Cited Read More