Does McDonaldization Promote or Impede Happiness?
According to George Ritzer, McDonaldization consists of four main cornerstones or dimensions: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (Ritzer, 2000: 11-12). In most ways these factors allow our everyday lives to be much more simple and easy, but do they bring happiness to our everyday lives? To answer this question, happiness must first be defined. This definition is somewhat difficult to come by because of the inherent subjectivity of happiness. What makes someone happy can differ greatly from one person to the next. However, happiness is also something that can be shared with others through common beliefs or experiences and greatly affected by others, therefore bringing it to the societal level. I would then generally define happiness as a sense of pleasure and fulfillment one gets from everyday acts of life. Though it seems to be satisfying many with the notion that efficiency and simplicity equal happiness, I would argue that for the most part McDonaldization promote
