History 3090

Commercialization of leisure

According to Richard Lippke in an article for Business and Society Review: "Five Concerns Regarding the Commercialization of Leisure": 

Anyone interested in the commercialization of leisure need look no further than Las Vegas, Nevada, to observe the phenomenon in its most developed and pure form. Las Vegas is a city intensely devoted to the delivery of commercial enjoyments of all kinds, including gambling, entertainment, shopping, food, alcohol, sex, and recreation. Visitors to the city are not only utterly dependent upon the commercial provision of goods and services, they are subtly and not so subtly encouraged to indulge themselves in a consumption binge that, temporarily at least, distracts them from the cares and concerns of everyday life. Las Vegas is perhaps the closest thing we have to Robert Nozick’s fanciful experience machine, a device conceived to deliver the goods of hedonism in ways previously unimaginable. Fortunately, it seems, most who ride on the Las Vegas experience machine do so for relatively brief periods of time, eventually returning home to the world of work, family, and responsibility.

Less elaborate versions of the Las Vegas experience machine continue to spring up all over the United States and in other countries. Amusement parks, athletic complexes, gambling casinos, shopping malls, and movie complexes are not only ubiquitous but seemingly ever more spectacular. Individual  also have ready access to commercially produced entertainment and diversion through such sources as television, stereos, videocassette recorders, and the Internet. Even forms of leisure or diversion that are not themselves commercially produced are increasingly accompanied by commercialization. Museums, art galleries, and national parks now all have shops where patrons can purchase gifts or mementos. In addition, advertisers and marketers attempt to persuade consumers that they cannot properly experience noncommercialized forms of leisure or diversion without the requisite accoutrements, whether these are sport utility vehicles, hiking gear, or proper athletic apparel.

It seems a mistake to suggest that commercialized forms of leisure are inherently bad or generally to be discouraged. To some
extent commercialized leisure has always been with us and there is little doubt that it makes the lives of individuals better in
many important respects. But for some time now, numerous social observers have suggested that there are reasons to be worried about the extent to which commercialized forms of leisure, entertainment, and diversion are displacing other kinds of activities and enjoyments.

Are you amusing yourself to death? How?

Richard L. Lippke is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at James Madison
University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.