Jane Denson, 11/12

        Last class' discussion of the culture industry helped me better understand Horkheimer and Adorno's theories and place them in the context of everyday life in the eyes of the consumer. As someone who likes to question the validity or motives of the media, especially in regards to the entertainment industry, I am constantly wondering about what effects the sameness found within our culture has on the masses. From my experience, technology has stood out as such a prominent example of these theorists' ideas in motion. If you think about it, every type of technological invention, mainly cellphones and computers, is the same as the rival brand. What's interesting here is the word brand. While yes, every product is practically the same with slight variations, which goes across every competitor, it must be recognized that the branding each company manifests is crucial when attempting to achieve success. I've always noticed this with Apple and their variously new gadgets, as well as regurgitated devices (that come in all sizes). Clearly, their branding is powerful and tied to market share, in addition to image. Perhaps that's also why they offer multiple colors for their phones and cases. People want to see the Apple logo in divergent shades of each color. Horkheimer and Adorno's analyses provide so much insight into phenomenons like this one that bleed into every facet of consumerism in our capitalistic society. Going further, you could easily note that apps follow this same social paradigm and all copy one another with their designs/features. To illustrate this, simply look at how Instagram and FaceBook emulated Snapchat's "story" feature. This is one of numerous instances where the sense of "repackaging" is abundantly clear to consumers, yet they still buy into it. However, studies have shown the addictive nature of these apps and the impact they continue to have on one's psyche, which would adequately explain how easy it is for companies to fool us into engaging more with their repetitive goods that don't hold much substance. In retrospect, the culture industry is fascinating, yet arguably harmful to consumers, since the sameness it contains appears to infect our daily lives.