Week One
When people and the community adopt different characteristics of fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s, it contains predictability, efficiency, calculability, and control. Predictability occurs where the company has the same work structure in every branch; therefore, people can speculate what the company will do. Efficiency is where the work productivity is the same in every component, and the quantity of work is the same in all branches, making the company uniform (Ritzer& Miles, 2018). Calculability refers to the principal investment being in the promotion based on the amount of the products. It is based on the quantity rather than the quality of products provided to the customers. Control occurs when the management of a company takes control by ensuring the productivity of all workers and replacing human labor with robots.
An example of McDonaldization is Amazon, which is powerful like McDonald’s. In Amazon, efficiency is seen since they provide many services and the products reach the consumer based on their demands and hence McDonaldization (Hershcovis et al., 2021). Also, there is predictability since the production and distribution methods are similar, allowing customers to know the packages of the products even without touching them since Then calculability if Amazon has offers that are provided the same while getting more quantity than quality (Hershcovis et al., 2021). Also, the same products are sold by Amazon in large quantities, allowing customers to save on the cost of the goods. In Amazon, control is seen since the management takes charge of the company by integrating human labor and new technologies to produce products in the warehouses and stores to the customers (Hershcovis et al., 2021). McDonaldization process is evident in all the products that people buy through the four similar characteristics, although the locations of the companies and shops are different.
Week Two
My current status of living is purely on the outcome of free will. The social forces in my life drive the experiences of the bad phase. As a student, I had to face rough times that did not make me make proper decisions as they were made by my parents, siblings, and grandparents. The decisions made my life difficult since I did not make the choices myself. Through my dependency on those around me, I felt the need to end my life since I did not see its worth. However, I once decided to move and live my life independently, which allowed me to control every decision. I felt restricted when with my dependents, but now it was good. When I moved, I started to outgrow myself, and my current status has impacted the free will that had seen me going through challenges and sacrifices in my life.
I had a friend doing well in life, and his parents allowed him to go anywhere and make their own decision. However, when my friend entered marriage, things worsened since she became dominating and possessive. My friend became stressed and became mentally ill due to the change in his wife. My friend was ever in thoughts to try to remedy the situation. The wife later left my friend over a minor issue that caused my friend to become devastated. Before deciding otherwise on his wife, my friend could not make any decisions until he realized he had made the wrong choice of a wife. This pushed my friend to stay long and later ended his life to remedy difficult situations. The events that led to my friend’s death clearly show the social forces that ate withing starting projects and making decisions.
References
Hershcovis, M. S., Vranjes, I., Berdahl, J. L., & Cortina, L. M. (2021). See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil: Theorizing network silence around sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(12), 1834-1847. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000861
Ritzer, G., & Miles, S. (2018). The changing nature of consumption and the intensification of McDonaldization in the digital age. Journal of Consumer Culture, 19(1), 3-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540518818628
