Culture Jam, Autumn: Response

Lasn describes some of the symptoms of the media and digital culture in America, and their results on society. He discusses how living in “digital realities” causes mood disorders, and pollutes one’s “mental ecosystem”. He talks about the pollutants of our mental environment (noise, jolts, shocks, hype, information overload, infotoxins), and their effects on the way we interact (erosion of empathy, unreality, loss of infodiversity), and how “media viruses” create “Manchurian consumers,” or blind consumers. I found myself resonating with a lot of his points, and the examples he cited. I completely agree that this overload causes us not to truly be able to appreciate or value things, that there are very few novelties any more. One of the points Lasn cited, is that most “ Information has become a form of garbage… we have no criteria for judging what is meaningful, useful, or relevant information,” (24). I agree that with all the information we receive, a lot of it is meaningless. By reading all of this, I wonder about why these aspects of American culture have spread to other countries; why are people so drawn to consumerism? Are companies and industries aware of the effects their causing/ is it an intentional barrage on all the consumer’s life? What can be done?