Appadurai Discussion Reaction

   After having digested our class discussion surrounding Appadurai, I found that I am particularly struck by his ideas of image, the imagined and the imaginary. It seems to me that even though these ideas are such a fundamental part of how humans navigate and perceive our world, we have grown less questioning of how these ideas are portrayed to us. What interested me even more though, is how his five “-scapes” form and shape the image, the imagined and imaginary lives that people of modern society seem to be living today. For example, in America and in other developed parts of the world, many people are fed this image of a “rich and famous” lifestyle. Although this lifestyle only depicts a small portion of how a small percentage of the population lives, it is over exaggerated and asserted into the public eye through the mediascape. This bombardment of a specific image leads people to see an imagined way of life that they feel should be pursued and achieved because of how the media portrays it. 
    When you witness someone living this lifestyle, it seems easy, happy and full of glamorous, expensive material possessions, resulting from the financial success of these individuals. This imagined way of life appeals to the average persons because most normal lives aren’t this easy, free and full of luxury. The average person works for a living; can barely make it by if they have more than one child it seems, and yet we are forced to think that this materialistic way of living is the right way to live when really it is a complete figment of the imagination. People drive themselves to the breaking point trying to achieve this kind of life, a life that in not easily achievable or realistic for most of the population, when in reality, they could be perfectly happy with the life they are living. Yet, the deepness of how these imagined lives are rooted into the dreams of so many people are the reason why no one seems to question their desire for this lifestyle. 
    Media is everywhere you turn, and most of it either features a successful celebrity, is convincing you that the newest product is much more essential than the last one, or convincing you that by doing this or doing that you can live like the elite do. Then, in the pursuit of this lifestyle, people spend money and this money goes on to further support the outlets in society that profit and then promote this life. Whether it be spending $1000 dollars on a leather bag or spending a few more dollars on the newest multivitamin because Kim Kardashian uses them, this imagined lifestyle follows most of us into every aspect of our relatively normally lives and pursues us to the point that we are miserable with what we have and what we are given, regardless of whether there is truly something to be unsatisfied with or not.