McDonaldization of Society
McDonaldization involves a process of rationalization described by George Ritzer that is utilized by sociologists (Ritzer 292). Ritzer elaborates the aspect of McDonaldization of society is manifested in situations, for example, where a society adopts the features of a fast-food joints. Worth a note, fast-foods are growing very popular because they highly fits with most individual contemporary lifestyle.
How Often I use Fast Food Restaurants, and how
Notably, with technology advances, everything has become so easy and fast such that we all want every other aspect of our lives to assume a similar concept, and fortunately, the fast food restaurants provide a suitable means of satisfying our hungry stomachs as fast and easy as possible. Surprisingly, most people have adapted a lifestyle that incorporates fast food chains as an important element. For instance, instead of making coffee at home in the morning, I buy coffee on my way to college, for lunch, I buy a sandwich or hamburger from a food truck, and in the evening after a tiring exhaustive day, I order pizza for supper from Pizza Hut. Arguably, food take-outs are part my daily routine, which serves the purpose efficiently but barely sufficiently.
The Elements of the Changing Society
While examining the association between McDonaldization and communal change in the American society, Ritzer points out four components of the shifting society that greatly influenced the future of McDonaldization.
Fast food has turned into a genuine fundamental of our everyday life and made a religion of establishments that reaches out to the millions of Americans across the country. The Fast Food industry in a few eyes has been one of the sharpest developments this world has seen. It has been driven by our stomachs and our wallets for 40 to 50 years it's as yet developing to this date. The man who make-believe it can be known as the best representative, this nation has ever observed. The Fast Food Industry is big to the point that it has influenced our wellbeing, changed our way of life, and misshaped our territory as far back as the very first moment.
McDonald’s is the global foodservice business with more than 20,000 local restaurants serving more than 30 million customers each day. McDonald’s has spread through over 100 countries, including countries in East Asia (Watson, 3). In the book “Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia” by James L. Watson, he studied three countries which were Beijing, Seoul, and Japan. Also, he wrote how McDonald’s has played a role in each countries cultures that he mentioned. He mentioned how different countries McDonald’s share similarities and differences the way cultures were impacted economically and politically, and also, how people viewed the American cultures coming to their countries. In this essay, I’ll be writing about how McDonald’s has been
The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become
McDonaldization of society- the process by which ordinary aspects of life are rationalized and efficiency comes to rule them, including such things as food preparation p. 173
McDonald’s is not some ordinary fast food restaurant with its trademark logo advertised almost everywhere in the U.S., many people all over the world know about these famous golden arches. The McDonald’s franchising started in 1955 and in less than fifty years, McDonald’s was introduced all over the world in countries such as, China, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden, France etc. McDonald’s global expansion has intermingled with cultural traditions because these countries are becoming more westernized. Since East Asia is becoming more westernized it also means that there is a cultural difference because of the influences from outside the country. The cultures are being changed because of how ideas are expressed by people and not by their
George Ritzer, in his book The McDonaldization of Society, has given a good understanding of the kind of world we live in. He describes the concept of McDonaldization, which is the process in which the principles that form the basis of McDonalds are greatly influencing the rest of society. McDonalds runs its business on the following key elements: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control by non-human technologies. A fifth element, which Ritzer perceives as a disadvantage of McDonaldization, is the irrationality of rationality. This is the idea that a society which is based entirely on rationality is not a normal human society because humans are not
Health care is something that affects every person in this country, and the rising cost is making it nearly impossible for people to afford. In The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer shows how the health care industry is changing and how the phenomenon of McDonaldization is effecting how we receive health care. Healthcare has become more efficient, calculable, predictable, and controlling. In the following sections, I will explore further these aspects of McDonaldization and how they relate to the health care industry.
According to George Ritzer, bureaucracy completely dehumanized the social institutions in America. He sees the bureaucracy as having four components: efficiency, predictability, control and quantification. He terms this dehumanization of an institution as "McDonaldization". One of the most prevalent examples in modern society is the health care institution. In the past, health care was more simplistic in nature. House calls were not unheard of, and doctors knew all of their patients and their families on a personal level. The doctor who delivered your parents would deliver you as well as your future children. Follow-ups were quite normal; doctors were concerned with your progress for their own peace of mind. It is only recently that the
McDonaldization is becoming the new wave of job types where workers are being deskilled, dehumanized and exploited. Machines are taking over tasks which the employees used to do such as bank machines (interact). The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. These jobs are becoming less interactive and personal because workers are becoming dehumanized and only allowed to follow a script, there is also the fact that fast food Company’s use drive through, where limited interaction occurs and are many restrictions. These types of jobs which the author George Ritzer labeled
George Ritzer 's book The McDonaldization of Society opened and exposed one of what can be considered societies major flaws: McDonaldization. Ritzer suggests that in the late 20th century the socially structured form of the fast-food restaurant has become the organizational force representing and pushing rationalization further into everyday lives and individual identity. Henry Ford was the first McDonaldization pioneer with his vision of an assembly line for improving the production of automobiles. His revolutionary idea dramatically changed how many automobiles could be produced and was very efficient.
. Through his research which states that by simply neglecting the variety and diversity of consumer practices in different regions and parts of the world and the various uses to which consumers can put McDonaldization, using its products and procedures to serve their own needs. There are many ways Mcdonaldization can be resisted in: social institution, education, the economy, family, as well as religion and military that our society can reverse the effects on the way we live.
In America McDonald’s food industry has become one of the most popular fast food restaurants that we see in our everyday life. The organization can be seen all over the US in pretty much every city. In a much bigger context though its popularity has grown all over the world, with McDonalds having over 30,000 restaurants worldwide. Consequently, McDonald’s is known as a big part of American culture, since the franchise includes having the same quality, famous hamburgers, French fries, shakes, beverages, along with the McDonald’s logo, the big “M” you see in all its restaurants, making it worldwide known as American based
George Ritzer describes McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world”. McDonaldization is the idea that our society is becoming more efficient and more fast paced. Rational systems can be defined as “unreasonable, dehumanizing systems that deny the humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within them or are served by them”.1 Today there are many types of businesses that are increasingly adapting the same values and principles of the fast-food industry to their needs. Rational systems are dehumanizing our society and seem to be even more irrational than convenient. “Almost every aspect of
Mcdonald’s knew that it would have been in pop culture when the legendary founder of the company, Ray Kroc , said “Mcdonald's was not into the hamburger business, but it in the people’s business” Kroc was saying that he believes in what the people want and mainly that's what pop culture is about. They use big graphics and flashy advertisements to give the people what they want. Mcdonald’s has become apart of culture for everybody.
Today’s society and culture is becoming more and more McDonaldized. This paper will illustrate what the process of McDonaldization is. In addition, this paper will show how today’s society has adapted to this process along with using the theories from Max Weber.