This essay will seek to explore the view that a consumer society produces both winners and losers. A consumer society is “a society that is defined as much by how and what people purchase and use, as by what they make or do” (Blakeley and Staples, , p. 16) Consumer society - Essay Example. It implies a crop that is aimed at consumption of goods and services rather than their production. The society is usually well organized with a number of the twentieth century sociological aspects Consumerism happened just before Industrial Revolution period but it could be seen obviously during this period. Lawson (, p) said by the ’s, for the first time in our history, we were producing enough to allow choice for masses. It means that consumer society was born. Consumerism in Society
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Living in the modern world people live in the consumer society. Having a lot of different goods at the market, people consume those and buy more and more other goods. One of the main characteristic features of a consumer society is that while consuming different products people do not do it independently, in vacuum. People are inevitable participants of the consumer society, as buying products they want to buy more and more other related or dependant ones. For example, when people buy a toothbrush, they are unable to use it isolated from other objects, they need toothpaste to get the consumer society essay effect from the bought product.
The same is about other products, buying some goods, people always want to buy more. Ideology is a notion which may refer to different spheres of human life. One of the broadest meanings of this notion is the way people think. Ideology is not just the ideas people have in their minds in the relation to one specific problem. Ideology is a set of rules and norms people live with. People should not confuse ideology and culture as these are two absolutely different notions. Culture is an objective notion which just exists in the society. Culture is created out of traditions which have been formulating for many years. Ideology is a personal subjective treatment of the surrounding world, the attitude to each other and the desire to show consumer society essay piece of a picture as a whole.
Ideology tends to make complex notions simple. Propaganda is one of the sides of ideology, as its main idea is the conviction of other people that his way of thinking is the only correct. Semiotics is a notion which is aimed at exploring different signs and symbols. One of the best practical applications of semiotics is the creation of different planned or constructed languages. Living in the modern world, it is impossible to imagine contemporary life without computers. Programming languages are an inevitable part of any computer program and software.
Being divided into different branches, semiotics studies different qualities of sign systems, the relation between signs and symbols and their meaning, consumer society essay, the connection between symbols their interpretation. Speech and language are the main objects of research in semiotics. Envy, desire and belonging in advertising are the notions which can exist only in the consumer society. When people watch advertising they want what they see. The feeling of desire may be provoked by a number of reasons. It is not a problem when people want what they see because they need it, advertisement just helps them choose a brand.
The problem appears when people want to buy a product because they envy those who possess it. This is called an advertising belonging, consumer society essay. No matter whether people need this product or not, they will surely buy it as their desire to possess the thing others have is too big, consumer society essay. All these notions, envy, desire and belonging in advertising are closely related. To become free from advertising belonging, people should either stop envy those who has an opportunity to belong a specific product or should enclose themselves from the desire to buy it. Having referred a contemporary culture to both mass and popular, it is possible to compare and contrast these two different opinions. Thus, identifying the notion of contemporary culture, consumer society essay have faced the problem whether to consider it as a positive or a negative issue.
To answer the question whether mass and popular cultures are the elements of contemporary culture and whether they are identified as positive or negative phenomena, we consumer society essay going to consider different opinions and key arguments offer by the following thinkers, consumer society essay, Stuart Hall, F, consumer society essay. Levis, Dwight Macdonald, and Raymond Williams. Having stated this idea, Macdonald strictly supports it with the arguments. He is sure that a culture is something individual, which is created by and provided for a human being. Mass use of culture eliminates the very idea of individuality that makes this notion lose its primary meaning.
But, there was not mentioned that culture means individual expression or a consumer society essay to a specific human being. Thus, the word culture does not mean a specific characteristic of one particular person, consumer society essay is a set of issues which characterizes a group of people, consumer society essay. According to Hall, popular culture has a positive connotation as it reflects traditions people have. The main idea of this opinion is that if the culture is mass and people like it, it is popular and there is no need to speak about negative connotation of mass culture, consumer society essay.
But, Levis tries to contradict this point of view by means of providing some negative effect of such mass popular culture. It consumer society essay not consumer society essay secret that culture changes. Thus, the generations which are so close have different cultures. The inability to have an individual or at least family culture leads to misunderstanding and conflicts. Hall can contradict this opinion stating that it is not the culture which changes and makes people become different, consumer society essay, it is the change in the relationships. Culture changes when a specific tradition becomes dominant over another one.
Having considered an opinion of different thinkers on the problem devoted to culture and its essence, I came to the conclusion that contemporary culture is a mass popular culture which denotes the present ideology of people. The problem of likes and having a personal opinion appears in the frames of this issue, consumer society essay. Living in the age of mass entertainment, some people still manage to appreciate high and avant-garde culture. So, it may be concluded that popular culture in the contemporary world is more than just an opinion of the vast majority of people, being interesting to a limited group of people, a specific culture may be popular as well.
It is not the opinion of a separate individual, so it is also mass. Being in demand among a group of people, it is considered consumer society essay be popular and mass, consumer society essay. Mass in this meaning may denote something revolutionary and opposite Williams Turning to the personal opinion, I mostly agree with Hall who states that popular culture is a mass one which expresses the ideas of people who consume the cultural products, consumer society essay. Culture should be and is referred to the tradition. It can be even stated that culture and tradition are interconnected notions which should always come together, consumer society essay.
Still, I also agree with Levis, who highlights that culture is in crisis now 34thus it is impossible to discuss this problem. One may state that culture and tradition are not related as there are numerous directions in the modern culture of one specific nation. A close consideration of this problem allows us state that the culture of one specific nation is changing by means of influence and domination of different streams, but still, there is always something traditional in ach new trend which makes this very culture related to the national tradition of people.
In conclusion, consumer society essay, contemporary culture is both mass and popular as the characteristic features of these notions coincide with the understanding of the modern culture. I strongly believe that culture should be connected with traditions as only in this way each nations will remain particular and unique. Cultural and traditional features are the most characteristic for describing different nations. Hall, Stuart. John Storey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Levis, consumer society essay, F. Raiford Guins, and Omayra Zaragoza Cruz. New York: SAGE, Macdonald, Dwight.
Williams, consumer society essay, Raymond. Need a custom Essay sample written consumer society essay scratch by professional specifically for you? certified writers online. Concept of Consumer Society in Modern Society. Key Concepts Living in the modern world people live in the consumer society. Learn More. We will write a custom Essay on Concept of Consumer Society in Modern Society consumer society essay for you! Not sure if you can write a paper on Concept of Consumer Society in Modern Society by yourself? This essay on Concept of Consumer Society in Modern Society was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly.
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Consumer society - Essay Example. It implies a crop that is aimed at consumption of goods and services rather than their production. The society is usually well organized with a number of the twentieth century sociological aspects The aim of this essay is to discuss how branding effects us a consumer society, what makes us remember particular brands and what moral issues are raised by the over use of brands. A brand was originally a mark on a product to identify who made it or owned it (cattle were branded so others knew who they belonged to if they Jul 21, · Write an essay that outlines the view that a consumer society is a divided society. Consuming plays a very important part in making and re-making our society. Over the years, we have learnt how to express our personalities and image through consuming. It provides us with a sense of belonging, as well as being able to create jobs, and means of living
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