å Sunday, November 20th, 2016

Toniann German

Soc: #8

Mcdonaldization is a term invented by George Ritzer. It is used to describe the process of rationalization in today’s society. McDonaldization is the process in which principles of fast food restaurants have begun to dominate very aspect of society. We are living in a fast pace world where people are obsessed being able to calculate, predict and control as much as they possible can. The reason for this is because of fast food establishments like Mc Donald’s that feeds off society by making their products convenient and affordable. The process of Mcdonaldization takes one task and breaks it down as small as possible. The task is rationalized to see how it can become more efficient. For example, making a hamburger might take you ten minutes however if you only had one job in the process of making the burger you may be able to produce 10 or 20 burgers in ten minutes. George Ritzer goes more in depth with this idea by describing the five dimensions of Mcdonaldization.

Efficiency: Efficiency is the best and fastest method for completing a task Ritzer discusses the efficiency seen into Todays societies as we step away from our stoves and kitchen mittens and move more towards fast food or frozen foods. Due to this we see an increase in food production in fast food industries hence the reason for wanting to create more at a faster pace and create foods that do not take long to cook.

The second principle is predictability: if things are predicable then we tend to feel more secure. Ritzer describes our predictability when it comes to food, because we are familiar with how food taste from fast food we will never question or worry about that changing. This reminds me of small medium and large sizes that are offered. With this option one can predict how much food will come each container. Predictability spreads like a virus, taking over our communities so that things seem more familiar to us and give us comfort. As a result, shopping areas, fast food restaurants, highways, traffic signs, and even schools are pretty predicable in appearance.

The third and fourth dimensions of Mcdonaldization is control and calculability, it is the focuses on the quantity of a product rather than the quality of a product.

The fifth dimensions involved. One of the issues that arise due to Mcdonaldization is the replacement of human workers for technology. Technology is replacing the need for human workers, this is because industries crave predictability and countability, while trying to eliminate uncertainties.

This connects to Max Weber in that his idea of rationalization was the process of replacing traditions with efficiency. With Ritzers explanation of Mcdonaldization we see that family traditions such as home cooked meal and family dinners are disappearing and are being seen as an inconvenience in the lives of this new upcoming fast pasted society.