McDonaldization of the Contemporary Society - Essay Example

McDonaldization of the contemporary society Grade (December 5, McDonaldization of the contemporary society The contemporary society is a reflection of the historical developments that have occurred in the society over a period of time, such that certain cultures that were new to the society some two decades ago have become perfect contemporary social practices. George Ritzer, a contemporary social theorist developed the concept of McDonaldization over two decades ago, when he first wrote the book The McDonaldization of Society in 1993, predicting that the American society, and consequently the global culture is tending towards the adoption of the fast-food culture (Ritzer, 2009). According the book, Ritzer predicted that the fast-food culture will eventually come to dominate most cultures (Ritzer, 2009). In developing this concept, Ritzer associated the increased growth of the relevance of the fast-food restaurant to the growing rationality of the modern society. Ritzer observed that the society will be able to reason fast in the future but reason in a highly shallow manner, such that it will tend to adapt the most easy and convenient method of settling problems, while ignoring the adverse consequences of their choices (Kellner, 1998). When compared to the rest of the foods, fast-foods are convenient since all an individual needs to do is appear in a fast-food restaurant and get served within minutes. However, the traditional food will take much time to prepare and also serve, which then creates inconveniences for a modern American and also global society that is characteristically busy (Schoepflin, 2010). Thus, while Ritzer’s concept of McDonaldization focused on the relationship between the changing contemporary social paradigm and the fast-food consumption, there has developed a newer version of the McDonaldization concept, which focuses on the contemporary global homogenization of cultures (Dieterle, 2004). Having started in America, the culture of fast-food is quickly taking shape in different countries globally, due to the concept of globalization. Therefore, the concept of McDonaldization can positively be linked to the increased global obesity and overweight problems. The contemporary society is characterized by a large population of obese and overweight people, compared to a few decades ago, with recent statistics indicating that the global population has nearly 29% of obese and overweight people (WHO, 2014). Several theories have been developed in the process of struggling to find answers to the issue of increased fat and overweight people globally, with some of the theories linking the genetic factor and the lifestyles as some of the factors contributing to increased obesity and overweight (WHO, 2014). The recent statistics that were published by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that there are over one billion overweight people globally, and among them 300 million people are clinically obese (WHO, 2014). Most conspicuous is that the obese statistics indicates that the problem of overweight is not concentrated to a single region or nation, but a widespread phenomenon globally. Thus, the obese population in the 21st century in regions such as North America, Easter Europe, the Middle East, the UK, China and Australia has grown by 75% since the 1980s (WHO, 2014). It is such statistics that serves to indicate that the concept of McDonaldization developed by Ritzer over two decades ago predicting the future of the modern society is relevant in the contemporary society, where fast-food has become the way of life for many American as well as global households. The McDonaldization concept is build around several principles, which have become evident in the contemporary society. The first principle of the McDonaldization concept as developed by Ritzer is the efficiency principle (Ritzer, 2009). The McDonaldization concept, according to George Ritzer, is a function of increased efficiency, where the society is trying to make do with little time consumption, through applying time minimization as the optimal method of accomplishing tasks (Ritzer, 2009). The principle of efficiency, as defined under the concept of McDonaldization is also observable in the contemporary society, where not only the individual and households are minimizing their time consumption in the accomplishment of different tasks, but also organizations. The organizational definition of efficiency is accomplishing high productivity while consuming the minimum resources possible (Dieterle, 2004). This explains the reason why most of the modern organizations are adapting new technologies as means of enhancing efficiency, since technology is one of the effective tool for accomplishing tasks while consuming both little time and financial resources. Additionally, most of the global organizations are operating in terms of franchises, conglomerates or joint partnerships, as opposed to operating as independent organizations. The notable area of high formation of conglomerates and franchises is the hospitality industry, where the global popular restaurant brands are no longer operating as independent restaurants, but rather as a chain of restaurants that are distributed globally (Bronson, 2010). The Subways, Dominos, McDonalds, the KFCs and the Pizza Hut are some of the restaurants that simply started as independent restaurants, but have transformed over time through mergers, acquisitions and franchises into the global giant chain of restaurants, with each of these restaurants serving millions of people globally (Dieterle, 2004). For example, McDonalds is chain of fast-food restaurant that has over 30 000 fast-ford restaurants globally, with 13,700 of these restaurants situated in the USA, while the rest are distributed randomly, covering 120 countries globally (Kellner, 1998). Thus, the shift from the individual ownership of organization into the contemporary business society formation of conglomerates and chains of associated businesses is a concept of the efficiency principle that was predicted to occur in the future under the McDonaldization concept (Ritzer, 2009). The search for efficiency has caused most of such organizations to neglect the fundamental basic needs such as the need for good working conditions for the employees, in the pursuit of efficiency in terms of the reduction of both material and time resource consumption. According to (Ritzer, 2009), the foundation on which the fast-food industry is built is the minimum-possible time consumption principle. This principle operates such that the fast-foods are prepared and served to the customers within the shortest time possible, so that the time-convenience for the customers is enhanced (Ritzer, 2009). Therefore, the same way the fast-food restaurants seeks to enhance customer convenience through reducing the time consumed in serving the customer with the foods, it is the same principle being applied by the contemporary business environment, where business are operating as conglomerates, so they can reduce both the cost and time conveniences for the customers. This is because, when organizations are operating as a conglomerate or chain of many businesses, they are able to reduce on the costs of production as well as eliminate the time consumed in the delivery of products to the customers (Bronson, 2010). This way, customer convenience is enhanced, and business or organizational efficiency achieved. Calculability is yet another principle of the McDonaldization concept, which provides that the future objectives in every aspect of life are likely to become quantifiable, as opposed to subjective (Ritzer, 2009). This simply means that the principle of simplicity and ease of performance of tasks will rule the world, as opposed to full engagement of individuals in their tasks. The principle of calculability is manifested in the contemporary society in the increasing unhappiness index that the world is recording. The world was much happier in 1975 compared to the way it is today (Kellner, 1998). This has occurred irrespective of the numerous and valuable technological advancements that have occurred in the past few decades, which have made the human life much easier than it was half-a-century ago. The communication channels posed a great challenge in the 20th century compared to the 21st century, since people did not have access to communication technology, media and gadgets that are available today (Schoepflin, 2010). Thus, while people struggled a great deal to keep in touch with their friends and relatives, especially If they lived a reasonable distance away, the contemporary society can easily connect with their friends and families from wherever they could be in the world, at very low costs. However, even with the increased connectivity and communication channels, the world is unhappy in the 21st century than it was in the 20th century, due to the fact that people are much occupied and busy now, than they were back then (Dieterle, 2004). Due to the application of both the principles of efficiency and calculability in the contemporary society working and home environment, there is less time spent between family members, as people are engaged in different area of lives trying to earn more money on a daily basis (Kellner, 1998). This has seen individual take more than one job a day, with some struggling to balance between two or three jobs a day, as a means of earning d sufficient income to support their living. The problem is that this calculability eventually leads the people to be even unhappier, because they use all of the money, or at least a great percentage of it to search for happiness through attending social events such as theater, music performances, going to the movies or travelling for vacations so they can relax with their families or friends. This calculability does not seem to serve the contemporary society favorably, since it has replaced the concept of spending quality time for people with work engagements that eventually leave people desiring to have social lives that are increasingly limited in the 21st century. It would be less meaningful to work throughout the day and fail to spend reasonable time with family, only to take costly trips to vacation destinations for the sake of making up for the time that has been lost (Dieterle, 2004). Counseling and therapy has become a common aspect of the contemporary society, with the field of human psychology gaining high popularity, due to its ability to address different human psychological problems (Schoepflin, 2010). The percentage of the population seeking counseling, therapeutic treatment and psychological interventions is high in the 21st century, compared to the 20th century and before (Dieterle, 2004). This is a characteristic indication that the contemporary society is increasingly becoming unhappy, with stress, depression, psychological issues and mental health disorders becoming the norm in the contemporary society. All these social changes have been caused by the McDonaldization of the society, such that both the home and work environment are characterized by little human interactions (Kellner, 1998). The production system in many organizations has been set such that the human interaction is minimal, thus creating a dull and unsocial work environment, which causes the employees stress and depression that becomes a cost for the employer to treat. The reasoning for establishing such productivity measures simply for the sake of increased productivity and then suffer the financial costs associated with treatment of unhappiness among the employees through counseling and therapies, lacks logic. In addition, the fast-food culture has also added to the psychological and mental health problems characteristic of the contemporary society. This is owing to the fact that food in the fast-food restaurant is served on the basis of minimum delay and minimum time consumption between the time of entering of the customer and when they receive their orders (Lamb, 2013). The overall effect is that there is minimal interaction between the customers within the fast-food restaurants, or even between the customers and the employees of the fast-food restaurants. The minimized communication and human interaction introduced by the fast-food culture both in the fast food restaurants and also in the work environments contributes to lack of adequate socialization for individual, which in turn causes mental health issues such as stress and depression (Bronson, 2010). Plastic friendship and plastic happiness are the other characteristics of the contemporary society, which have come about as a result of the McDonaldization of the society (Dieterle, 2004). Where the society is increasingly lacking in social interactions and human interactions, individuals have turned to superficial sources of interaction such as the social media networking sites, where people are increasingly interacting online in the 21st century, as opposed to a century ago (Kellner, 1998). While the online and internet interactions can result in temporary happiness, this plastic happiness vanishes the moment the internet interaction is over. Thus, the contemporary society has resulted in pursuing elusive happiness, and the outcome has been even a more depressed and stressed society. The predictability principle also causes the contemporary society to be even unhappier, since the work routine, the dressing code and the customer service practices for the fast-food restaurants and other organizations are highly predictable (Dieterle, 2004). The predictability of such environments, which includes the prediction of the likely menu that individuals will get both at homes and in the restaurants due to lack of traditional foods being cooked in the contemporary society serves to make the whole environment monotonous and thus boring. The overall effect of a continuously boring and monotonous environment is lack of excitement, stress and unhappiness (Lamb, 2013). The problem is that the homogenization of the home, work and social environment is not only a characteristic of the American contemporary society, but also a characteristic of the global society. This makes even vacations taken to different destination for the sake of relaxation and breaking the monotony less fruitful, since the destinations reflect the same homogenization and monotony of the environment. The overall effect is that happiness in the contemporary society has become so much elusive, due to the McDonaldization of the society (Bronson, 2010). The contemporary society is characterized by a McDonald system that entails the production of standardized products through a repetitive process that entails little human interpersonal engagements, or even little human interaction with the products they produce (Dieterle, 2004). This principle was predicted by George Ritzer, where he introduced the principle of irrationality or rationality as a fundamental principle of the McDonaldization concept (Ritzer, 2009). According to the principle of irrationality of rationality, the society applies rationality in a manner that eventually becomes irrational (Ritzer, 2009). The contemporary society has greatly been affected by the principle of irrationality for rationality, due to the fact that the efficiency and convenience offered by the fast-foods is the rational basis of the society turning to the consumption of the fast-foods, while ignoring the health implications (Schoepflin, 2010). Thus, while rationality is applied to opt for fast-foods which are convenient in terms of time and even costs for many individuals, they neglect the fact that such foods will eventually cause other health issues such as obesity and overweight. Thus, the contemporary society is characterized by overweight and obese at a rate of 29% of the global population (WHO, 2014). Thus, the irrationality of the contemporary society is demonstrated through the time and resources consumed in addressing the health problems such as obesity and overweight, compared to the convenience and time efficiency created by consuming the fast-foods that causing these health problems (Lamb, 2013). When assessed, the costs of treating obesity, overweight and their associated health problems such as hypertension and cardiovascular problems is much higher, compared to the costs savings associated with opting for the fast-foods as opposed to the traditional foods (Dieterle, 2004). On the other hand, the inconveniences caused to the obese and overweight population as well as their families while trying to address the obese and overweight problems as well as their associated illnesses is much greater compared to the convenience they attain while opting for the consumption of the fast-foods (Bronson, 2010). Therefore, although the society initially turns to the consumption of the fast-food as a matter of convenience, efficiency and calculability, the overall outcome of this consumption is costly to the contemporary society. References Bronson, K. (2010). Does McDonaldization Promote or Impede Happiness?. Web. December 7, 2014. < http://www.skidmore.edu/~rscarce/Sociological_Perspectives/McDonaldization_Hap.html> Dieterle, C. (2004). McDonaldization and Cosmopolitanism - Investigations in modern and post modern thought. GRIN Verlag. Kellner, D. (1998). McDonaldization revisited: Critical essays on consumer culture. Westport (Conn.: Praeger. Lamb, R. (November 29, 2013). How McDonaldization has influenced and impacted society. Inside Business. Web. December 7, 2014. < http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/how-mcdonaldization-has-influenced-and-impacted-society-426/> Ritzer, G. (2009). The McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press. Schoepflin, T. (January 14, 2010). Living in a McDonaldized World. Everyday Sociology. Web. December 7, 2014. < http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2010/01/living-in-a-mcdonaldized-world.html> WHO. (August 2014). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organization. Web. December 7, 2014. < http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/> Read More