Consumerism and Technology

This past week when I was working on the midterm for this class, I looked over my notes from the readings and re-listened to a couple of the lectures to help refresh my memory for the responses. Re-reading and listening to the lectures again, I picked up some new points and ideas that I’d missed or not fully considered the first time around. Listening again to the lecture on Karl Marx, I found that some of the ideas that Marx spoke about to be especially relevant in today’s society. In particular, his views on consumerism and production seemed to parallel much of what goes on today with the Internet and new technological gadgets. Marx spoke about how production determines the society, and that as this society continues to create new needs for itself people continually consume and produce in a never-ending cycle. As early as 15 years ago, the cutting edge in the tech world was reserved for computer engineers in government agencies. Now, if I want the cutting edge in a new technology, I can go to my local Apple store and buy it for a pretty high price. Of course, within a month of me buying the newest and best gadget, it will already be outdated because there was one more app or program that people need on their computer or phone, which my computer does not have and without which I’m apparently unable to fully appreciate anything on my month-old MacBook. True to what Marx spoke about, we currently live in a society that is controlled by the software and technology that we produce. 

However, this does not mean that these advancements are completely bad. Thanks to the Internet, we can connect with friends and family far away, pay credit card bills, find information with ease, and even maybe find our future spouse. And now that we have these easy means of communication and consuming, we can’t imagine our lives without it. Innovations that make even the most mundane tasks easier or cooler looking attract our attention and challenge us to think of new or easier ways to perform other day-to-day activities. But through this innovation and increased information, we can also see exactly what we don’t have in our day-to-day lives. Online shopping, entertainment news and celebrity lifestyle websites, online magazine articles talking about the newest car or music player entice us to buy apps and objects that we would otherwise see no reason to purchase. Even if the average person doesn’t buy everything that they see online, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook draw us in and command our attention. One of my friends recently de-activated his Facebook account, and every time he opens up his Web browser he automatically clicks the tab that sends him to the Facebook homepage, just as an automatic response. I know many other people, self included, that will open up Safari or Firefox with the intention of looking up some piece of information online, and will instead just automatically end up on Facebook, forgetting what they even went online in the first place for. I don’t mean to make the Internet or technology out to be this evil force that’s ruining our lives; in many ways, it’s helped us and our society tremendously. However, I also think that it’s important not to let ourselves be controlled by these technologies, and try to remember that we can live our lives without the latest app or the newest gadget.