Culture in Sociology We have all been commercialized by the news, advertisements, and businesses, for which we are sacrificing our beliefs, traditions, and everyday things that classifies us as humans. What is stopping future generations from becoming overweight, non-constructive, violence-promoting couch potatoes, who only move to grab something to eat or to procreate? Our society is training us to become such objects, and something must be done. If lack of culture is not enough, think economics, nearly all products are focused towards the average consumer, or “all individuals or households that want goods and services for personal consumption or use and have the resources to buy them” (Swartz, p. 89).
This means that no matter how poor or how rich a consumer is, as long as they have the money to buy a product, there is potential to market the product to them. Such means causes anyone who can afford a product to intimidate them to purchase the product, thus keeping the consumer within their social class by causing them to buy things that they do not need, and not investing or saving their money for something important. Consider when a consumer purchases clothing, they can either buy inexpensive clothing, or the exact same outfit with an additional brand name logo which raises the price.
This occurs among all social strata. One who purchases generic clothing or makes their own clothing is sometimes looked at with less reverence than one who is wearing an Abercrombie sweater or a Gucci jacket. Although the consumer believes they are receiving more than just an ordinary garment, generally after a few months the consumer realizes their flaw, especially if the garment is tattered or worn own due to poor quality (Lamont, p. 166).
The Term Paper on Consumer Behaviour In The Purchase Of High And Low Involvement
Consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour that consumers display in seeking, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their personal needs. Consumer behaviour includes how consumers think (their mental decisions) and feel, and the physical actions that result from these decisions (the purchase). [7] Abraham Maslow’s &# ...
The popularity of these purchases reflects how commercialism has infiltrated our everyday life. Although we may not have a functional personality, we may purchase things to make it seem as if we have personality but in turn are just better reflecting our shallowness of personality and culture through such purchases. Another example is how we easily criticize people who dress outside the norm because of their traditions and culture.
More often than not, Americans avoid those dressed in kilts, or shawls that drape over ones face, or any other garment that displays ones diversity from the status quo. In some instances, people may shun them as dirty or different. What message are we displaying to the rest of world? Our true lack of acceptance for another culture only further demonstrates how commercialism has turned us into a society without a true culture, or as I like to think of it as land of the free unless you different from the rest of us. Not only are we losing our traditions and diversity to commercialism, but also our values. This is most easily depicted in the violence and deviance shown as socially acceptable in American media (Fox, p. 67).
This is better demonstrated in television programs than anywhere else; this partly because Americans absorb more television every day than any other source of media.
Television is the cesspool for violence and deviance and the home of the commercialization of culture. Why is television such an important role in everyday life? Because television is generally an escape from reality, it also provides as a babysitting resource while the parents are busy with household chores. We are driven early to televisions by our parents, and the habit of using television as an escape stays with most of us for the rest of our lives. But why are there so many more violent and deviant acts being portrayed on television than anywhere else? People like deviance, and the key function of television is marketing, so it is only appropriate for television to display what makes money; just as any other business tries to make money, the television industry is only fulfilling the goals set by commercialism. (Lamont, p. 240) People enjoy deviance and shock value so much, that even before any studies on deviance and media sales were used by the media industry, any newspaper in the early 1900’s could tell you that crime and bad news sells more papers than good news will (Fox, p.
The Essay on Television One Make Play
QuIP # 1 Questions- Q- In the styles of live performing or television performing which style would be more suited for an average viewer. A- I believe that television as a way of mass producing entertainment has made it more of a low rate form of entertainment than live performances, however when using mass media one can broadcast a show to millions of viewers at one time. This surely proves that ...
112).
In fact in the early 20th century, many papers would make up fake stories of horrible acts and scandal committed only to sell more papers, also known as yellow journalism, until this was deemed as illegal. Channel 1, the education channel used by many schools for further education to students, has been accused of being even more commercialized than public television. It tries to appear “hip” to spark interest in the child not only for learning purposes, but also for advertising purposes. It makes up words or uses words used in popular subcultures (surfers, skateboarders, etc.) thus spreading and overusing these subcultures in order to spark consumer interest. This again destroys traditions and values, and defeats the purpose of subcultures, to separate from the norm. Channel One also uses preferred music and overly popular “news bites.” It also commercializes children and brainwashes them to what they should be, rather than letting them ultimately deciding for themselves, such motives cause children to be less original and more bounded by the limits of commercialization (Fox, p.
147).
Apparently these types of media are working, however, because consumers end up purchasing the items seen on television, due to this desire to spend and our lack of self-control to overspend, we then notice another problem with commercialization, debt. Most middle class Americans have some sort of debt to banks or credit card agencies. In a recent non-profit organization commercial I witnessed on television, it stated that the average middle-class American has around 10,000 dollars of debt; even our government has a debt near 4 trillion dollars. Why so much debt? Because commercialization, although extremely effective, forces unnecessary spending, causing inflation, poverty, greed, and possibly social collapse. Although commercialism is destroying our traditions, raising our crime rates, promoting violence and poor quality, and dragging us further into debt and possibly Armageddon, there are benefits that make commercialism functional.
The Essay on How Far Do Sociologists Agree That Education Benefits the Ruling Class
The debate outlined above suggests that some sociologists believe that education benefits the ruling class, however other sociologists may argue that education benefits everyone or just men. To address this issue I will be looking at both sides of the argument and I will assess to what extent sociologists agree that education benefits the ruling class. Some sociologists; such as Marxist agree with ...
The most beneficial is the promotion of advancement, solving the wonders of the universe and making work less time consuming, or at least, less hard labor. Another benefit of commercialism is its adaptation to change, as long as there is an economy there will always be some form of stability. (Swartz, p. 129) Another benefit, although more like a product of commercialism, is its ability to provide goods and services to whomever desires and has enough funds to buy a product, it also provides a means of showing the product to anyone around the world, also known as marketing. It also can stimulate the economy, another product of commercialism, and create jobs for those who have the proficient skills to fill them. Although we are losing many of our lower class jobs, the United States economy is also creating new higher paying jobs due to technological enhancement.
Unfortunately, many of the lower classes do not have the skills to fill these jobs, and thus the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer (another reason for the fall of the Roman Empire).
Subsequently, although commercialization is ruining American values and traditions, is generating more crime than any other factor, putting us further into debt, and promoting deviant behavior, it all depends on the person whether the benefits outweigh the stigmas or vice versa. Words Count: 1,237.
Bibliography:
Fox, Roy F. Harvesting Minds: How TV Commercials Control People. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
Lamont, M. The Dignity of Working Men. New York: Random House, 2000. Swartz, D. Culture and Power. Harper Collins, 1999..
