The Shift of Economy and Culture in the 20th Century
To Debord, the society of the spectacle began with the development of the
moving image. These moving images entranced the public eye as they, in a way, created
the reification of events and news stories that the public was mostly only able
to read about in the papers.
Since the moving image went from having a niche audience to a mass audience in
the span of a couple of decades, society embraced this new technology and
changed along with it at a very rapid pace. The actors projected on these giant
movie screens became celebrities after the public demanded to know their real
identities. The public idolized these charismatic individuals and wanted to be
just like them. Clothing and accessories became a way for the masses to emulate
these stars while also expressing their individual personalities to everyone
around them, and so consumerism was born.
 |
| Florence Lawrence, the first movie star |
Debord believes that “the spectacle is the stage at which the commodity has
succeeded in totally colonizing social life… the world we see is the world of
the commodity” (Debord 42). The commodities of today are the objects we feel we
need, that we can’t live without. As Cold Stone Creamery puts it via the names
of their serving portions; Like It, Love It, and Gotta Have It! These products
indicate our social status and define how cool and hip we are. If you’re left
behind there can be real consequences.
On a recent episode of Slate’s podcast Double X, staff
writer Amanda Hess stated, “teenagers who don’t have cellphones [about 15% of
U.S. teens] see their friends in person less frequently than teenagers who do
have cellphones or smartphones.” This statistic shows how the commodity can
have a genuine effect on people’s social lives, because they have not kept up
with the social norm of owning a cellphone they are now unable to communicate
with their friends outside of school, work, etc. and thus get left behind
socially in the process.
It’s not just the social sphere that Debord accurately
predicted the spectacle would effect either, it now includes the transformation
of journalism to emphasize quantity over quality. This transformation of “the
loss of quality that is so evident at every level of spectacular language… can
[now] develop only within the quantitative” (Debord 38). The number of stories published
in a physical newspaper is limited by the size of the publication. As Clay
Shirky describes in Everyone Is A Media Outlet, “what doesn’t get into a
newspaper is whatever is too expensive to print and deliver,” but with the
development of online and citizen journalism came the “switch from ““Why
publish this?”” to ““Why not publish this?”” (Shirky 60). We are now
overflowing with information and the mass media has adapted to this change by focusing on breaking news updates on their websites and social media accounts. Our Twitter
feeds need to be refreshed every minute to keep up with all of the new tweets
that are being sent out by those we follow.
The commodity is the spectacle because it follows us
everywhere we go. In the social sphere our friends and peers talk about current
events, music, movies, etc. At home in the private sphere advertisements,
movies, and TV shows bombard us on our sleek, aesthetically pleasing computers
and 50" HDTVs. We need commodities to stay relevant because if we aren't
relevant or "in the know" then we fear that we will be perceived by
society as out of touch and obsolete.
 |
| RIP VHS: (1970-2008). All innovations will soon be primitive. |
Bibliography:
1. Thomas, June. "Double X: The Text Me You Love Me Edition." Interview by Amanda Hess. Audio blog post. Slate.com.
Slate, Aug.-Sept. 2015. Web.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/doublex_gabfest/2015/09/mass_incarceration_internet_isolation_and_personal_essay_addiction_on_this.html>.
2. Debord, Guy. "Society of the Spectacle." The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone, 1994. N. pag. Print.
3. Shirky, Clay. "Everyone Is A Media Outlet." Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. N. pag. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment