We can understand clearly now what macdonaldization actually is so the question that now has to pop up is; what is the effect of macdonaldization in our society? Unfortunately, we encounter a problem right here. The worry is that since the concept of how common the fast food has become in our society has gained so much popularity to date that in order to observe the impacts of macdonaldization itself, we have to study a society where fast food does not prevail. We have been fortunate enough to find at least one such setup amongst us. In the news, we have discovered a small city in Los Angeles where the average human lifespan extends well beyond 80 years. Researchers have been around investigating the reasons, and few have come up. It could be the vegetarian diet that is so common amongst its people, the richness of the culture that they as a community enjoy or the very frequent activities in the parks. Researchers also discovered a very interesting trait in the people of this city, and that is that fast food is not so common in their society like we may see in a popular city these days. Not many years back, the city council approved the city’s very first Macdonald’s outlet, and the result was shocking. The city was in an uproar with concern over the officials jeopardizing the city’s healthy lifestyle.
This explains why the people living in this city need not worry about their health, but it does not answer the question; why should we be concerned? There are many reasons why some of which are explained in the following few sentences. The greatest reason is what the statistics say. At least one-fourth of the Americans eat fast food every day, and this is a less than ideal proportion. This is because most of us know for a fact that the French fries that were made from potatoes peeled and sliced in the kitchen are processes that are now being taken to factories and into big machines. During this process, the ingredients that are being put to use are very processed and pretty fatty. What also is a cause for alarm is the fact that the portions of the food are getting bigger, and the fast food companies are incurring barely noticeable cost on the upsizing of these meals. This means that we are eating more processed food per meal. Also, a typical hamburger of today contains tiny portions of a lot of cattle, so we have that much more likelihood of coming across meat from a cow that is sick and impacting our health in less than ideal way. And we have yet to discuss the greatest drawback of fast food which is that we cannot tell for sure the exact ingredients that it makes use of.
Apart from efficiency and cost effectiveness, the reasons why a person might choose fast food over cooking in the kitchen are countless. One of the reasons is the very prompt delivery service that ensures that the food reaches the customer’s doorstep within an hour of placing the order. So when it comes to choosing between taking two or more hours to cook and having the food reach you within the hour, the reasons for our choices seem pretty logical. Shockingly, we are still not done improving upon that point of action in our lives because due to our constant efforts, the process just keeps getting easier and easier. It was not very long before today that Amazon announced the launch of a new food delivery app called the Prime Now, and the objective of this app is to get food to the customer within the hour of placing the order on the app. It will be through the same app the customers would be able to browse through the menus of all the restaurants that are listed in the app. It is pretty simple to see what this announcement means for the future of McDonaldization.
As if we have not achieved much already, many of the fast food brands are now moving into the schools and colleges of the US. Since the issue has already been under debate for quite some time now, we are more aware of the consequences of this particular choice in our lives. New studies show that children who have a habit of eating more fast food perform poorly and have lower test scores in science, math and in reading. So obesity is not our only concern when it comes to feeding fast food to the younger generation. Therefore, in a study that was published in ‘clinical pediatrics’, the children who ate fast food daily scored an average of 79 in science compared to the 83 for children who never ate fast food.
With all of these statistics and results, we have become more worried about the effects that us switching to fast food has had on our health and our mental capabilities. It is from the same fear that we are also coming up with solutions to make our eating habits a little healthier. A similar attempt towards better health has been made by an organic pioneer Amy, who has started her own restaurant that serves all of the same foods that we presently seem to enjoy including French fries and burgers, except that this type of fast food comes from only organic ingredients. The restaurant is expected to serves others items of fast food as well including pizzas and burritos but without ingredients that have been genetically modified and those who have been using chemical preservatives. This could be a very splendid example for us to follow; one that leads us not away from macdonaldization rather towards a healthier version of it. Our success could only be determined by how sustainable the process could prove to be when serving millions of customers at times.
Macdonaldization is coming forth with very shocking consequences, ones that we are just now beginning to notice. The good news is that like Amy, there are many people out there who are trying to switch to a healthier eating plan but sadly, progress in that department has been seen to be very steady at best. We could start worrying less in this regard only if we can find for ourselves ways to step up our game.
Works Cited
Benson, Jonathan. Organic pioneer Amy's to unveil 'clean' fast food concept in California. 03 June 2015. <http://www.naturalnews.com/050284_Amys_restaurant_organic_fast_food.html>.
Liljas, Per. Fast Food Could Make Children Perform Worse in School. 22 December 2014. <http://time.com/3643622/fast-food-school-children-grades/>.
Medina, Jennifer. Fast-Food Outlet Stirs Concerns in a Mecca of Healthy Living. 18 December 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/loma-linda-calif-frets-about-first-mcdonalds-outlet.html>.
News, CBS. Americans Are Obsessed with Fast Food: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. 31 January 2002. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-are-obsessed-with-fast-food-the-dark-side-of-the-all-american-meal/>.
Perez, Satah. Amazon Launches A Food Delivery Service Via Prime Now, Starting In Seattle. 8 September 2015. <http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/08/amazon-launches-a-food-delivery-service-via-prime-now-starting-in-seattle/>.
Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of Society. Sage Publications, 2014.
