Blog # 2 Society of the Spectacle

The Guy Debord who described society of the spectacle as a “immense accumulation of images that sell capitalism” believes that images in billboards, magazines, television and media in general recreates a perfect life that Americans envy and want to have. There is a total control of all the media from television to the latest media tool, the Internet. Top companies with high revenues sell and advertise ideologies that consciously or unconsciously affect Americans. Nowadays, people are lacking of interpersonal relationships with others and communicate through twitter, Skype, iMessage, Facebook, etc.; instead of having a real connection. This fact, however, affects people’s ideas of relationships and a real sense of connection between them. Media has not only portrayed the way we should look or act, but also has replaced a genuine conversation.

“The spectacle is the stage in which the commodity has succeeded in totally colonizing a social life”(42) said, Debord. We are intermediated by a media device, that at the end allow us to keep ourselves isolated. During dinners or social events there are always people looking at their phones, texting, instead of having a real conversation with the people around them. This has become a common pattern, people have started to feel more comfortable in front of a computer or cellphone believing that “social media” is the new path which replaces in some way a real interaction with people. However the media has also become a tool, from professional chat meetings to seeing someone on a video-call who is on the other side of the world. 

Moreover, the term commodity means a marketable product or item, which is created to attract people and satisfy their needs and desires. In terms of advertisements, society tends to imitate what they see, many advertisements sell things that we actually do not need but they create a desire for consumption. The messages received through commercials are one of the most influential when it comes to buying a new product; food brands, clothing stores, electronics, restaurants, and the list continue. There are several consequences that come with the consumption of product since media has a great impact on society, when it comes to buying a product. A product with high quality advertisement is most likely to create the idea that you actually need it, which consequently produces consumption and the idea that you have more value or that you are happier because you have this new item or product.   

“The spectacle is a flip of money. It, too, is an abstract general equivalent of all commodities” (49). We exchange money for the items, products we want to acquire and money is a representation of our needs and desires.

The problem with consuming products influenced by the media is that we may end up consuming products that we actually do not need and in some cases incur debt and lack of money for basic needs. It is necessary to be aware of the influence of the marketing in advertisements, commercials, among others. Media images are a surreal unit that not only lacks realism but also gives a false statement that you are not enough without certain product.

#2 - The Society of the Spectacle

According to Guy Debord’s, Society of the Spectacle, “the spectacle is a permanent opium war designed to force people to equate goods with commodities and to equate satisfaction with a survival that expands according to its own laws” (Debord 44).  We as a society have become preoccupied with celebrities and the fantasy it evokes. Debord focuses on our relationship to the social awareness of society. Debord, brings to our attention the fascination we as a society have over celebrities, who appears to have glamorous life styles. Many of those same celebrities we imitate, suffer in silence pretending to be something their not. They appear to have the life most of us can only dream about. We have a tendency of putting celebrities on a pedal stool, serving as role models or individuals we aspire to be like. Often times we live our lives vicariously through others determined by the cars we drive, the clothes we wear and our physical appearances to feel a connection to celebrities. Based on our perception of the true reality,  we are a society trying to find ourselves looking through the  lens of someone else’s life. Resulting, in us losing ourselves. Therefore, the spectacle of society is any trend at that particular time shaped by society as marketable to a worldwide audience.  

“The world we see is the world of commodity” (42). Debord describes our society as spectacle because we allow the media to make our buying decisions for us. We are surrounded by images daily that appeal to us in an effort to fulfill some self-satisfaction. The fact that we disregard traditional values, product consumption has become a way of life. With the rise of media, popular movies, magazine and famous people attacking our emotional appeal rather than our necessity have manipulated our desires as a society. Companies are now concentrating on the consumer rather than the product by convincing us that our social success depends on the products we own. In a society where there are so many individuals unhappy with themselves, suffering from depression and dealing with economic woes, who are looking for anything to provide that quick uplifting solution to life’s problems. As a result, the commodity is essential to economic survival avoiding an economic collapse in society. The commodity spectacle is the products purchased by consumers based on social influential false needs, rather than the basis of need. It can be argued that we the consumers all have needs and wants that are socially formed determined by our society. “Once society discovers that it depends on the economy, the economy in fact depends on the society” (52). Whether it fulfills an empty void or pleases a necessary need, the spectacle has made this all possible for the commodity.

Media provides information and entertainment, but media can also affect our social and cultural traditions. Some form of media touches our lives everyday, economically, socially and culturally. We the consumer supports the media and advertisers by buying the products that are being promoted by popular celebrities. The commodity spectacle affects the way we spend our money. The media appeal to us in ways that, catching our eyes, our ears and our hearts, is influencing the commodities as spectacle. The spectacle of being admired and respected, having social status by our peers. The media recognizes we all crave attention from others, wanting to be seen. For that reason, the media understands the consumer’s attraction to escape. So, the commodity as spectacle using sports figures and music artists as the image of the product. The allure of spectacles, deceiving our minds buying luxury items we don’t need, but desire because Derek Jeter is the face of the product. “This is the society of the spectacle, where the commodity contemplates itself in a world of its own making (Debord)”. As a society of persuasion spectacles, the future of media will continue to have a powerful impact promoting bad values of real and false needs. Media is everywhere, we are.

Semester Project Proposal

For my semester project, I'd like to do a video montage dissecting the popular video app, Vine. Like, we all know, a former student here at Rutgers-Newark student blew up because of the app but I don't think many realize that it's not just popularity that these Viners gain, but also huge amounts of money for 6-second video clips.

I see this whole app as a spectacle in itself, creating opportunities for failed actors/ actresses or just average human beings. This app has created so many opportunities for people who just basically used the app for fun and turned it into a livelihood. Companies are approaching these Viners to create 6-second ads for them. The advertisements don't stop there and have actually been appearing on television. I think it's a great example of convergence being utilized.

Here's an article from Business Insider & WNYC.

Some popular Viners:


Nash Grier
Meagan Cignoli
Brittany Furlan

Society of the Spectacle

Society of the spectacle is the pop culture that was created through human’s obsession with mass media. Debord describes the spectacle to have a huge impact on all aspects of human life. He says that the media basically impacts people abstractly but not realistically. The content loses quality and so do the morals of the people who consume the content.

Debord claims that while the main purpose of media is to try to sell us things that media itself is a commodity that feeds us ideas that shapes our perceptions and behaviors. Simple things such as ads can influence how society views and accepts the word. For example, women being objectified in the media, gives society the notion that women must be submissive and are merely sexual objects.

“The fetishism of the commodity — the domination of society by ‘imperceptible as well as perceptible things’ — attains its ultimate fulfillment in the spectacle, where 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.” (Debord, 36)

Society is so absorbed into media that we are controlled by ideas and images that we see that sort of brainwash us to do certain behaviors because we perceive it as being acceptable behavior. It’s like the new role model that decides how society should and should not act. What people don’t realize is that while those views can be accepted by many that media is often ran by only a couple of people in power that don’t necessarily usually relate to the audience.

Commodity itself is also a spectacle because it creates a consumer culture. Media constantly throws images glorifying money, cars, and clothes. It creates this lifestyle that many of us will be unable to attain. It gives us the false pretense that if we buy these products, we too could have these things, which is definitely not always the case.

“The economy’s triumph as an independent power at the same time spells its own doom, because the forces it has unleashed have eliminated the economic necessity that was the unchanging basis of earlier societies. Replacing that necessity with a necessity for boundless economic development can only mean replacing the satisfaction of primary human needs (now scarcely met) with an incessant fabrication of pseudo-needs, all of which ultimately come down to the single pseudo-need of maintaining the reign of the autonomous economy. But that economy loses all connection with authentic needs insofar as it emerges from the social unconscious that unknowingly depended on it. ‘Whatever is conscious wears out. What is unconscious remains unalterable. But once it is freed, does it not fall to ruin in its turn?’ (Freud).” (Debord, 51)

The society we live in is very excessive and strays away from just necessity. The famous movie Fight Club’s main character Tyler Durden actually reflects a lot on society and consumerism (which you can find here). While we may be consuming goods, in actuality, it’s the material possessions that are actually consuming us. We’re told to work hard so we could earn money to buy things that we essentially don’t need. We’re all turning into purchasing machines that lose ourselves in items. The movie suggests separating ourselves from this consumer culture so we could really be at touch with ourselves.

Also, we need to realize that the economy is nothing without the consumers. The consumers technically have the power to change the consumer culture but they first need to be more conscious of what they’re actually buying into first.

...Did you know you were using it?

Helena Ruiz

Blog Post 1

“The real consumer has become a consumer of illusions. The commodity is this materialized illusion and the spectacle is its general expression.”(Debord, 47)

In Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, he elaborates on the meaning of this “spectacle” in which consumers are being spoon fed by mass media to require all the things that most Americans do not have. The spectacle distorts our minds into believing that perception is reality when in fact we are the product of the illusion. The spectacle is a “social relationship” of preconceived ideas and the commodity is the exteriorized misconception of those ideas. Society is simply passive in creating spectacle and consuming its commodities.

"The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life.”(Debord, 42)

Debord stresses the notion that the commodity becomes a necessity and that is solely due to the spectacle that is viewed by society. What Debord stresses in this essay is that the spectacle affects the way society is able to function. What the spectacle provides is a vision of a reality that is rare and unsustainable. What the society of the spectacle is, is a state that can be gained through the achievement of the commodity. The spectacle is the visual ideals whether is be in picture or audio form. As a society, Debord acknowledges that the spectacle has created a fallacy in the societal reality. In perspective, the commodities distributed to society are no longer just material things that we desire but things that ultimately controls us. 

“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, 37)

The spectacle represents the dominant idea of life. It introduces our needs and reinforces these ideas of life by falsifying reality. It is altered through media sources to suggest a distorted reality in which we never question. 

Media portrays these spectacles in many aspects of life whether pertaining to the beauty of a woman or the masculinity of a man or any universal speculations. The spectacle aims to subject humans. Therefore, many media outlets aim to reinforce preconceived ideas through correlation.

“Correlation refers to the ways in which media interpret events and issues and ascribe meanings that help individuals understand their roles within the larger society and culture… By correlating one’s views with other groups or preconceived notions of general public opinion, the media can help maintain social stability…”(Pavlick, McIntosh, 27.)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczvmLnBTEs

For example, take a look at the commercial for  Summer’s Eve Feminine Body Wash. The commercial includes a couple in their early 30’s. The man takes a shower and accidentally uses his wife’s Summer’s Eve Feminine Body Wash. The woman then begins to mentions the qualities the soap contains which is “perfectly formulated for a woman’s V”, implying that he has just used a woman’s body soap. After realizing his mistake, he makes it his mission to accomplish the “manliest” challenges in order not to be seen a feminine. This is an example of the spectacle recreating the distorted ideology of the differences between men and women.

As the spectacle continues to dominate our daily societal reality, consumers will continue to accept and reinforce our particular fetishism through the commodities we all desire.

They Think we Have our Eyes Wide Shut

          Guy Debord's Society as a Spectacle accurately  depicts how an economy holds an extremely high value on commodities.  Debord speaks on various subconscious topics that help mold the value on a commodity.  He also goes onto talk about how a commodity helps mold a human, an economy, and even the world.  

          Debord says, "Here we have the principle of commodity fetishism, the domination of society by things whose qualities are "at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses." This principle is absolutely fulfilled in the spectacle, where the perceptible world is replaced by a set of images that are superior to that world yet at the same time impose themselves as eminently perceptible."(Debord 37) 

          We live in a day and age where we get fooled by certain images and brands.  We get misled by brands selling themselves to be more superior than others and they actually really.  Commodities are always trying to push themselves from the wants to needs bracket.  Look at Beats by Dre headphones for instance.  

           They are amazing headphones that were branded extremely well.  Every big time athlete and entertainer probably has been photographed wearing them.  

          No matter how 'great' they are, that doesn't warrant the price it cost for headphones used to just listen to music.  (They currently run for about $200.)  Beats by Dre headphones are absurdly overpriced, but consumers continue to purchase them.  Humans have actually died over these headphones.  I guess the glitz and glamour behind wearing these headphones is immeasurable.  "If Brad Pitt wears these headphones, then I guess I'm on Brad Pitt's level," is how the common man thinks in today's day and age.

         Debord goes onto say, "The commodity world is thus shown as it really is, for its logic is one with men's estrangement from one another and from the sum total of what they produce.  

The commodity form is characterized exclusively by self­equivalence ­­ it is exclusively quantitative in nature: the quantitative is what it develops, and it can only develop within the quantitative."  (Debord 38) (Debord 39)  

          We equate self-worth with what commodities we have.  I'll take my mom for instance.  We are 1st generation Nigerian-Americans.  I have 0 immediate family besides my parents and siblings, living in this country.  My cousins, aunts, and uncles are all in Africa.  My grandmother on my mom's side visited us during the winter and she took a picture with snow because in her 70+ years of living, she had yet to physically see and feel it.  

           Anyway, I guess it was my moms dream or something to buy a house.  We had a decent sized apartment in Bloomfield, New Jersey.  When she had friends over, it did feel a little cramped up.  She went and bought a house in Newark, New Jersey where we currently reside.  I look at it like this, "Yea you have a house, but you live in the FUCKING hood!  Are you crazy?!"  Every-time someone asks me why my mom moved from Bloomfield to Newark, I tell them, "It's because we moved in to a house I guess.  We were in an apartment before."  They still look at me like I'm crazy though.  
          
           This all goes back to self-worth being in cohesion with what commodities you have.  I personally think my mom subconsciously bought the house to increase her self-worth to her and her friends.  That's the only humanly possible reason I can come up with.  People will put the safety of their lives in jeopardy to increase their 'perceived' self-worth.  Debord's words hold true.    I can't completely fault her.  Someone will die without ever being able to purchase a house.  She moved here 30+ years ago and did enough in America to buy a house.  

          The needs to wants war is a war commodities are seem to be winning.  Debord put a magnifying glass on this war.  It affects us all in some sort of way, whether directly or indirectly.  I'll certainly be asking myself, "Do I NEED this", when I make my future purchases.    

Post 1: "Still got those J's though!"

            Guy-Ernest Debord’s The Society of Spectacle is a criticism on society and its values revolving around consumerism. Modern society has misplaced importance on things one wants as opposed what is essentially needed, thus spawning the spectacle, which is a world which is infatuated with things it does not need.

By tackling aspects, he cites that man is losing consciousness due to lack of will. “As labor is progressively rationalized and mechanized man's lack of will is reinforced by the way in which his activity becomes less and less active and more and more contemplative.” (Debord) In other words, man is consumed with passive thought instead of active. It has become second nature to simply pull out one’s phone to see if they missed anything.

            In relation to modern society, people no longer work for necessity. Rather, they work for things they want: a nice house, a new car, the latest technology, new clothes, etc. Debord’s identifies the spectacle as that “which aims to make people identify goods with commodities and satisfaction with survival that increases according to its own laws. “ (Debord 44)

            As society has become technology dependent, the population has become so infatuated with technology that it has become much more than a simple distraction. People now value technology as a source of value rather than entertainment, both for communication and information.

            With the tech dependent economy, companies like Apple are constantly releasing updated versions of their technology to make more money. Things like the iPhone are released with “better” details and design specs, along with new technology. People line up for weeks in order to keep up with the times and stay relevant even though the upgrades of the new iPhone are not much different than its predecessor. “In the inverted reality of the spectacle, use value (which was implicitly contained in exchange value) must now be explicitly proclaimed precisely because its factual reality is eroded by the overdeveloped commodity economy…” (Debord 48)

            Chapter 3 in Converging Media focuses on mass communication formats. It highlights the fall of the press in relation to news and how digital media has made printing nearly obsolete. Blogs have become valuable sources for consumers to obtain news about music, films, and the latest fashion releases.

            Although there are many facets covered on blogs, I will choose to focus on fashion as the spectacle. Everyday something new is posted on blogs, be it a new collection of clothing or new sneakers. Each week, conglomerates like Nike releases new sneakers.

           

            Often times it is the same model that released the week prior, however in a new colorway. It is the duty of Nike to make consumers feel like they absolutely need this sneaker because it is more “special” than the one that released prior. This provokes a feeling of need in those who are entrenched in the culture, that they “need” this new sneaker. And although the satisfaction is temporary, the following week sees a new release. It is a never ending chase, often leaving people, mostly kids, attempting to live beyond their means.

One will blow their entire paycheck on a pair of new Jordans and will be unable to buy lunch for themselves all week, which in reality is more of a necessity than sneakers. However, their thought is “I still got those J’s though!” This thought is exemplary of Debord’s statement, “The consciousness of desire and the desire for consciousness are identically the project which, in its negative form, seeks the abolition of classes, the workers' direct possession of every aspect of their activity.” (53)

            Society is infatuated with what they want instead of what they need. The oversaturation of advertising in every aspect of life taints the core values of life itself, which is the spectacle Debord is trying to bring to light.

"The Society of The Spectacle"

                                            "The Society of The Spectacle"

"The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord seems to be taking shots at the consciousness of  society and it's values.  Relationships between people have been replaced or diminished by images,  which deteriorate human experiences between one another.  It is clear that Debord is not a fan of mass marketing, as he views this as one of the major reasons for the substandard connections between people.

The "spectacle" is the superficial images that have taken hold of society.  In Debords view, our society has become enamored with "things," which have replaced substance.  Debord is speaking philosophically of society in contemporary times, which exemplify our existence, or lack there of in its pure essence.  Philosophically, morally, and spiritually, Debord argues that we are almost caricatures of who we were, in place of what we are, which is cattle to consumption.   We are consumers of "things," images, and the ideas of reality, which have been distorted to conglomerates of mass media and mass marketing.  I believe we have witnessed such a phenomenon just this past week with the unveiling of Apple's I-phone 6.  These new phones come out approximately every year and the consumer frenzy is of epidemic proportions.  The feeling is that amongst the followers of this phone, itis one of necessity.

The mass marketing of things in which people feel they have to have a "thing," many times are rooted in a pseudo, fixated mindset that leaves one feeling inadequate without that which has been marketed towards the consumer.  The mass marketing to consumers is such a huge industry that millions of dollars are spent annually on the purchasing habits if consumers. Advertisers use such data to appeal to the emotional needs/wants of the consumers.  Debord's analysis is of this superficial need to satisfy our dependence on how we have been manipulated into believing that the "things" that are wanted are thought to be "things" that we need.


The cattle reference refers to modern societies "need" to have items and our utter mesmerized mental state of self absorption to these items.  Our needs have become paramount to images that inundate our consciousness, which lead us away from human interactions.  The I-phone reference is a key example because modern day phone communication is reflective of a new form of communication-text messaging.  We have learned to communicate with each other without actually speaking to one another.  We can speak into a device, which will translate our words to the person that we are not communicating with.  New laws have come out, which state that drivers are not allowed to text and drive (which has led to several deaths and serious injuries).  This new form of communication is a prime example of the modern day spectacle that Guy Debord speaks of in "The Spectacle of Society."

Mesmerized by modern technology

POST 1: COMMODITY AS SPECTACLE

 The commodity as spectacle, without any thought, I believed this chapter to be about the society we are living in and what exactly we believe is our primary objectives in life. The term “spectacle” comes into two definitions, one in which is a “visually striking performance or display” (dictionary.com) or “an event or scene regarded in terms of its visual impact” (dictionary.com). Debord defines the spectacle as a “permanent opium war designed to force people to equate goods with commodities to equate satisfaction with a survival that expands according to its own laws” (Debord 44). Debord explains how our society has grown to become a society where we not only focus on what is important to have, but the desires lure us into seeing things as a “spectacle.”

            Every girl goes into the mall and goes “eye shopping” to please our eyes with what we want but cannot afford. The $250,000 ring that catches your eye, the commercial, well, about almost every commercial that uses sex and fame to make you desire the product; just about everything is a spectacle in the eyes of Debord. We lost sight of our spectacle that we believe to be the “visual striking performance” with materialistic goods that are forced unto us through media. Clay Shirky in “Here Comes Everybody: Everyone is a Media Outlet” explains exactly what our society has gotten into by stating how “although water is far more important than diamonds to human life, diamonds are far more expensive, because they are rare”(Shirky 79). He explains in similarity to Debord on how we do not crave for what we need, in this case water, but we crave for diamonds that are simply materialistic goods; that has become the commodity as spectacle in our society today.

            If you turn on the television, every 5 to 10 minutes, a new commercial is on. Why is that? Why can’t we simply enjoy what we are watching without having to be interrupted by useless materialistic objects that we do not need? Because, our society is living in an unconscious mindset, in which, what we see that we do not have, is what we crave for. Even for simpler items such as "Pepsi," commercializes itself with the celebrity icon, Beyonce. Even if Pepsi or any other drinks isn't our favorite, because our favorite singer and or actor is promoting it, we have to get it. The commodity as spectacle describes how our society today has become absorbed into materialistic goods that we do not need but desire. “The consumer is this materialized illusion and the spectacle is its greatest expression”(Debord 47) in which he believes that our visually striking display has become into an illusion through media. Our insight on what is a spectacle and what is not has been diminished, our knowledge has been degraded and has been tarnished with the medias affect. We cannot hide from the “commodity as spectacle” because our world has changed dramatically within the past decades in which media has controlled our lives. The enticements of new “spectacles” are being controlled under media in which we see everyday through magazines, commercials, even while on a walk and see an ad on a car. Our society is a society of the spectacle in which we cannot control but live under and see the transformation of media into our lives.

http://www.mariodelarenta.com/2013/12/publicidad-subliminal-diciembre-2013.html

http://www.rick.com/beyonce-pepsi-ads-spark-controversy/