McDonaldization and Its Impact on Society - Research Paper Example

McDonaldization and Its Impact on Society Jerry Ciacho McDonaldization and Its Impact on Society A lot of people know that McDonald’s have changedand shaped the way we all live. However, only a few are able to fully understand the underlying impact its principles and its system has had in almost each and every aspect of the civilization we live in today. To be able to further identify the changes it has caused in the present-day world, one must be able to understand McDonaldization. McDonaldization is a term coined by professor and sociologist George Ritzer in his book entitled, “McDonaldization of Society” in 1993.

It is a word used to define and describe the pattern that society has, in a sense, followed from that of the worldwide fast food chain known as McDonald’s. According to Ritzer, the way McDonald’s systematically and uniformly operates as a business food chain all around the world has been patterned to the way the society is now operating as well. McDonaldication is defined as “the process of rationalization, albeit taken to extreme levels.” (“What Is McDonaldization?” n.d.) Indeed, McDonaldization’s impact has encompassed almost all aspects of society.

Among these is in the area of bureaucracy, or government administration. Because government workers are divided and segregated into classifications of responsibilities and duties to the government, it provides the most efficient and effective means to be able to serve the people well. Because efficiency has become it number one priority, it has led to a mass amount of substandard work and thus, bureaucracies begin to lose control over those who work within and are served by them.” (Ritzer, p. 28-29) Aside from the bureaucratic ways that McDonaldization has affected, it has also impacted the medical world, more specifically in the giant world of healthcare.

Health care was improved and renewed, now more and more easily controlled and efficient. However, this “new and improved” health care industry has its negative effects. “The much idealized house doctor has been irretrievably replaced by a much more streamlined, effective, all-encompassing, but, alas, also a much more impersonal system of health care.” (Larney, n.d.) In the aspect of criminal justice, McDonaldization has affected how the system works and with it the workers who live and are binded under this system.

Agencies are constantly working on ways to be able to control and regulated the number of crimes being committed so much as that they focus more on the control rather than what it was made for in the very first place: the assurance of justice, honesty and neutrality. Instead of focusing on these, “efficiency of criminal justice has become the most important value.” (“How criminal justice is a lot like McDonald’s?” n.d.) Even in family bonding and the pure concept of eating, McDonaldization has changed the way it works and the way it is viewed today.

People are jam-packed into tables, and wait the long lines to receive food from machines, which create them. The environment and atmosphere is McDonald’s has indeed become barely favorable for interaction and bonding with the family. Instead of prioritizing family and social communication, “The McDonalds goal is to guarantee a ten-minute eating experience, and the production and consumption operation is geared to getting customers in and out of the restaurant as quickly as possible.” (Kellner, n.d.) Possibly the major impact that is commonly hidden and unnoticeable is its impact on people’s significance, lifestyle, values and principles.

McDonaldization continues to be evident through the way it is continually modifying and altering society through what is called hyper-consumption. McDonaldication has also taken in the form of many other industries that are part of our everyday lives at present. Personally, I do agree with Ritzer in that, McDonaldization based on over-rationalization has truly seeped in to all aspects of modern humanity. Although it may not be very evident and palpable to a lot of people, most are simply not mindful of the system of fast-food chains.

References What Is McDonaldization? (n.d.). McDonaldization - Exposing the Iron Cage! Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://www.mcdonaldization.com/whatisit.shtml Keel, R. O. (2010, July 7). The McDonaldization of Society. University of Missouri-St. Louis. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/mcdonsoc.html Ritzer, G. (2004). The McDonaldization of Society. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press. Larney, T. (n.d.). The McDonaldization of Information.

Simmons College. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT96/96-171-Larney.html How Criminal Justice is a Lot Like McDonalds. (n.d.). Justice Blind. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://www.justiceblind.com/new/mcds.htm Kellner, D. (n. d. ). Theorizing/Resisting McDonaldization: A Multiperspectivist Approach. University of California Los Angeles. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/kell30.htm Visconti, Virginia.

The McDonaldization Thesis. (n.d.). Indiana University. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/ritzer.htm