The Society of the Cell Phone

The society of the spectacle cannot be easily defined since it is not technically a physical thing but rather an idea. Earlier on in his book Guy Debord says flat out “The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images”(Debord 4). So what exactly does that mean? Well rather than being an advertisement on a billboard or a blockbuster movie, the spectacle is the response people have to those pieces of media with other people. So for example the song "The Macarena" is not a spectacle but the response and craze that swept the nation that found everybody dancing and using it in common lexicon is. One thing Debord says which I think is huge and couldn’t be more right is “The spectacle is the stage at which the commodity has succeeded in totally colonizing social life”(Debord 42) Debord is saying a couple of things here. First you have to understand the role of the commodity in all this. In the Marxist world of Debord, commodity is capitalism and material goods, which is this in not so many words: “In the spectacle’s basic practice of incorporating into itself all the fluid aspects of human activity so as to possess them in a congealed form, and of inverting living values into purely abstract values, we recognize our old enemy, the commodity.” (Debord 35) So going back to the previous point, the commodity totally colonizes social life. It’s as if our lives are taken over and changed forever by this so-called spectacle. A great example is the phenomenon of “the selfie.”

Attractive Woman Taking a Selfie.
Image by Doris Cacoilo

 It almost happened overnight but somehow every person in America is obsessed with taking pictures of themselves, and “the establishment” is taking advantage of it. I hate to say it but the selfie movement has taken over  and like Debord says this take over is done with such fluidity and ease no one seems to notice nor can they get away from it. For me it’s extremely difficult to read Debord without thinking about social media and today’s society that has revolved around “tweeting” and “texting” and being attached to a cellphone 24/7 turning in to a bunch of zombies on cellphones. 

America's Zombies  Image by CSglobe  

Somehow Debord saw the future and knew what was to come. Chapter 2 of the text has a great op-ed piece called “Text Messaging and the Thumb Tribe” In this piece they talk about the rise of text messaging in the world and how it became adopted  as a sociocultural way of life.While texting has brought some positive change to the world there are also many problems "Of Course, with the rise in popularity of texting comes a range of unintended problems and issues. One such issue is texting while driving, which greatly increases the risks of accidents...Sexting or sending pornographic pictures or comments, has also become an issue" (Pavlik 43) Debord was right on the money way back in 1967 and knew exactly what was on the way. “Cell phone use and social attitudes, or the amount of time people spend on the internet (or facebook), and deteriorating social skills.”(Pavlik 43) Without meaning to get too dark, it makes complete sense why Debord would take his own life in the mid 90’s. The world was changing and he knew he couldn’t stop it.  

Notes:

1, Debord, Guy. "The Society of the Spectacle." (2) (Debord). 1967. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/2.htm>

2. Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.