The culture industry, Adorno and Horkheimer both argued that the culture industry has taken over our free time. Adorno even claimed that free time did not exist, free time to him was something created by the culture industry to give the masses a chance to recuperate before coming back to work again. If Adorno was around today I am sure he would be even more critical of the culture industry with the invention of the Ipod. According to sale reports, Apple has sold about 42 million Ipods since 2001. 42 million, that is more then the entire population of Canada!! The Ipod has allowed the culture industry to penetrate not only our “free time” but it has allowed the culture industry to conquer time in general. With the advancement of technology, there has been an increasing demand on us the workers to produce goods. The increased demand in labor has decreased the amount of time we have to recover. This is where the IPOD comes in to play, it let’s us consume popular music and movies just about anywhere and anytime. We can listen or watch our IPODs while traveling to and from work, during lunch breaks and even during bathroom breaks. There are many reports of individuals being victimized while using their IPODs in part because they were not aware of their surroundings. How can we as the working classes ever realize that we are being controlled by the culture industry when we are not even aware of our immediate surroundings?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4625262.stm
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