According to Guy
Debord, “the society of the spectacle” is the relationship of the use of mass
media and how it affects people and how they live their lives. They go hand in
hand, feeding off each other. The commodities people receive and how they view
them, all sway how people make decisions and go about their daily lives.
Through this spectacle, the desire to want slowly shifts into the need to
survive.
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The spectacle is in essence a norm
that society unknowingly seeks to achieve and fit into. It is the feeling of
seeing something that is desirable and also one’s intention of achieving that
desired commodity. In order for the spectacle to exist, society must
continue to produce commodities. For this cycle to continue, the fragmented
commodity must be consumed by the fragmented society. Debord states “the world
at once present and absent that the spectacle holds up to view is the world of
the commodity dominating all living experience. The world of the commodity is
thus shown for what it is, because its development is identical to people’s
estrangement from each other and from everything they produce. (37)” This means
that society has created a spectacle through commodity and through this
spectacle a cycle is created in which society can either follow or stray from. To
add onto Debord’s idea, capitalism is what subjugates society and engulfs them
into the spectacle.
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Mass media is without a doubt a huge influence in
people’s lives and how they make choices. Especially in today’s day and age,
media is one of the leading factor and sources of learning because it is so
easily accessible either through radio, television, the internet, and social
media. Though this is not necessarily a bad thing, society uses these tools in
a manner that isn’t beneficial to their lives. Advertisements in particular also
drive the spectacle and stray people from wanting certain things because it
isn’t “socially acceptable.”
Through advertisements, society is sucked into
believing and wanting certain commodities. People are brainwashed into thinking
that they need a certain product because advertisement portrays it as a
necessity rather than a want or desire. Social media is also a key factor in
the society of the spectacle. Social media is a mask to hide people’s
imperfections and flaws, as well as feeding one’s ego. Through the power of
social media, society can pick and choose how the rest of the world sees them.
Society feeds off such influence, wanting to be part of the “social media”
world that only portrays false ideas of how people live their lives. Debord
states that “the perceptible world is replaced by a selection of images which
is projected above it, yet which at the same time succeeds in making itself
regarded as the perceptible par excellence. (37)” The spectacle has trapped
society into believing that they must follow a certain norm in order to fit in.
Sources
Debord, Guy-Ernest. "The Society of the Spectacle." The Situationist International Text Library. N.p., 1967. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
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