Digital Consumption

In an ever-changing society with common misrepresentation and false needs the modernist belief remains that technological progress is paving the way to a brighter future for current and next generations.  As industrialization and scientific breakthroughs reach new heights, human lives are made ‘better’ by technologies we have grown dependent on for our day-to-day lives.  With these rapid changes a modernist can’t ignore the risk this has brought to our, “…free thought and individuality.” (Creeber, 2009: p. 12)  It is their distaste to the repercussions of modernity that makes their belief paradoxical by nature, both loving and hating the results being produced.  

            Modernism is a key reason for the decline of old media, but consumer demand is as responsible for advancements being so rapid and the use of mass production for mass consumption.   Industries escalated their production line to manufacture cheaper and more accessible products to the public.  Ford’s own methods of mass production for automobiles is what began the ‘Fordist’ philosophy that was apparent at affecting various areas of mass culture.  This replication of not just objects but television, novels and other media products is exactly what modernists feared would continue.  The opportunity to find something with a unique quality becomes more of an impossibility, especially when consumers demand more of the same.   

            Briggs famously says, “…we are apparently setting out to give the public what we think they need – and not what they want – but few know what they want and very few know what they need.” (Cited by Briggs 1961: 238)  This intriguing yet terrifying notion bares a lot of weight as society relies a lot on new media to provide them with options on purchases, entertainment etc.  Through no fault of our own we have been subjected to it for so long we no longer realize whether our wants and needs, are actually ours.

            Only until fully understanding semiotics can a consumer even begin to decode hidden messages underneath the multitude of media texts and develop a resistance against its influence.   Whether the advantages from mass industrialization outweigh the disadvantages is another argument altogether, but there is no denying the lasting effect it is having on our generation and possibly the next. 

Bibliography

Creeber, G and Martin R. 2009, Digital Cultures, Open University Press.