What is Mcdonalization, and is it bad for a society? Mcdonaldization is a term coined by George Ritzer in his book The Mcdonaldization of a Society. Ritzer explains the process of Mcdonaldization as a society becoming more like a fast-food restaurant through the adoption of four prominent characteristics. Efficiency, calculability, standardization, and control are the four characteristics of Mcdonalization, and these characteristics might seem like good things to any rational person. However, any process that adopts these characteristics, no matter how rational or good it appears at first glance, has the potential to turn out detrimental to society and even possibly transgressing the four primary characteristics of said process.

Ritzer based his work on Max Weber’s work. The only difference is that Weber compared society to a bureaucracy (which Mcdonalds is a bureaucracy so I don’t see much of a difference) with the same four characteristics. What makes Ritzer’s critical analysis stronger is that it has been updated with a modern bureaucracy that is identifiable by most people on this planet. Ritzer’s Mcdonaldization is the same thing as Weber’s rationalization and the structure these processes impose on human social interaction and thought process furthers the process even more and it is not a process that is easily reversible. The differences between someone who has gone through Mcdonalization and someone who hasn’t, is comparable to a domesticated animal and a wild animal. Granted this is a rough comparison, but the difference between the two is as apparent. While the four characteristics of Mcdonaldization have proven themselves successful over the years, the success has come with a grain of salt. In the past half century the effects of Mcdonaldization have become more apparent. Mcdonaldization is depersonalizing the social institutions that our society puts so much value in. In the past both individuals and society has a whole bought stock in our inalienable rights, but recently there seems to be more value placed on material goods. This attitude has taken over many of our social institutions and the negative effects have become blatantly obvious, the most prominent is the dehumanization of daily life, social interaction, and how we perceive our own lives.

This is a trend that needed to end yesterday. I think everyone can agree that this world is not a perfect place, but can anyone agree that the dehumanization of humans is in anyway going to help make this world a better place to live in? Unfortunately, people can be institutionalized to certain ways of life, and our society has been institutionalized to this way of life. So changes will not, nay, the changes cannot come overnight like a dream. No matter how badly they are needed.