Culture Industry is a term used by critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer presented in a chapter of Dialectic of Enlightenment called “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” to describe how social cultures in a capitalist society are being used to produce standardized products and sold to the mass with the only focus to gain profit. They also argue that cultural products such as music, tv shows, films, radio etc… have lost their uniqueness and have been stripped away from the initial meaning and individuality that art is meant to represent but instead it’s being used to influence and shift the view point of the mass, making us all lose our own sense of uniqueness.
Adorno further argues in his work that products from the culture industry “originally derive from the needs of the consumer” and are deliberately designed to appeal to the mass consumer hence why they are accepted with so little hesitation or critical thinking instead it creates a distraction into further indulging us in the consumption of the product. Examples from today’s society are vast as we are constantly distracted with different social media platforms such as Instagram, X, Tik Tok and have even more entertainment platforms such as Netflix that we consume on daily basis which causes us to become passive and satisfied. This denies us from having our own critical thoughts and lose our authenticity as we are constantly bombarded with the same commercial content which we can all easily find by navigating through our phones.
There are several key characteristics that are frequently used in the cultural industry to deceive society and lead us away from the truth. The standardization of cultural products that lack in diversity and uniqueness which are recycled repeatedly to appeal to a wider audience is used to manipulate and influence the public opinion, enforcing their own ideology on the mass. This further highlights the fact that they want us all to indulge in the same bubble so we can all think alike, dress alike and act alike and create the perfect utopia.
Adorno further critiques the lack of challenging our own mind with unique and flourishing art but instead we rely in the comfort of the passive and oppressive art in which the system tide us to, as they don’t want us to critically challenge or revolt against the same system. As humans we like to lean towards what is familiar to us and don’t even think for a second to go outside the box in which the system has trapped us in as we are comfortable enough to be distracted hence becoming complaisant. However, many think that this is an extreme and pessimist way of thinking towards life because we are only born to live, work, reproduce and die without really thinking why we are in the position in which we are as a society.
Some people may not agree with Adorno’s point of views and ideology however, there is no denying that our society has become passive and more distracted as technology keeps on developing and it may be too late to turn the clock around.
References:
Dialectic of Enlightenment – Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer.pdf (pdfy mirror) : Free download, Borrow, and streaming (2014) Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-TJ7HxrAly-MtUP4B (Accessed: 23 October 2023).
