Gabe
Nazario
Professor
Caçoilo
Convergence - Post #2
23
September 2014
Spectacles | Media | Convergence
A spectacle by definition is “anything presented to the sight or view,
especially something of a striking or impressive kind” (Dictionary.com). Many
people would argue that today’s society is a society of the spectacle. At
first, this seems like it is a simple play on words. However, when you look
closer you can see what this statement means. Among the people who have
argued this would be Guy Debord, author of
“The Society of the Spectacle.” He describes our society as a society
that has completely lost focus in anything other than spectacles. He believes
that, “the spectacle presents itself simultaneously as all of society, as part
of society, and as instrument of unification. As a part of society it is
specifically the sector which concentrates all gazing and all consciousness”
(Debord 3). Basically, we as a society tend to focus our consciousness on anything that becomes a worldwide spectacle. A spectacle in our time could be what happened in NYC during 9/11.
This was an event that was seen worldwide, it required our gaze and our complete
attention. Even though this was a sad time it was something that went viral
around the world. It was something that the whole society knew about. This
spectacle controlled several people’s lives as most spectacles do. This shows
that we are truly a society of the spectacle.
Debord goes a step further in his book,
“The Society of the Spectacle,” and talks about how commodity can be a
spectacle. He states, “The spectacle is the stage at which the commodity has
succeeded in totally colonizing social life. Commodification is not only
visible, we no longer see anything else: the world we see is the world of the
commodity” (Debord 42). This is a big theme in his book, he shows us that
commodity, which is essentially physical goods that someone can buy has taken
over our society. It has become a spectacle, something that we gaze at and
instantly desire. This is something far different from the 9/11 example above.
This is a spectacle that someone wishes they had. This idea is still in full
effect in today’s society. For example, I added a link at the bottom of a
recent Axe body spray commercial. This is a product that is used to help men
smell better, however this commercial creates a commodity as a
spectacle. In the commercial there are several angels falling from heaven
because they are so drawn to the smell of the Axe body spray. They finally find
the man who has it on and they throw their halos away signifying that they are
most likely going to do something unholy with this man, specifically because of the way he smells. This commercial which is selling a
commodity instantly becomes a spectacle, because the viewer thinks that by
buying this product they will be able to make any woman fall for them. Which is of
course a blatant lie, but this is a current example of what Debord was talking
about. In Henry Jenkins, “Convergence Culture” he speaks about media in
general. He speaks a little about commodity taking over the society. But he touches upon the idea that our cell phones are not as they used
to be, we use them for everything, we are completely and utterly addicted to
them, we don't actually need all the features they gives us. But instead we desire them (Jenkins 16). These cellphones have become a commodity as a spectacle. So
it is clear that this is something that is not just an idea from a man in the
1960’s but instead this is our lifestyle currently, especially in the United
States.
We
as a society need to understand that there is really no escape to this. If
every citizen in the USA only bought what they needed our economy would landslide
dramatically. So instead of trying to get around this idea that we as a society
are completely controlled by spectacles, we should try to understand it more.
All these temptations of commodity becoming spectacle are shown through
media. We see so many things we want through
different media platforms. We already know what we need in life; so in order to
understand this more we need to learn the idea of convergence. Convergence
according to John Pavlik and Shawn Mclntosh is, “the coming together of
computing, telecommunications, and media in a digital environment” (Pavlik and
Mclntosh 8). This is just the start of perhaps understanding media as well as
understanding why commodity has taken over our lives. But this is a start that
is well needed and will be appreciated in the near future.
Benjamin Gabe Nazario
Convergence
Post #2
September 23, 2014
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