Adorno vs TikTok

On the commodification of mass culture

Often when I am scrolling on TikTok I am met with a sense of sameness. Everything feels as if it is just a copy of everything else. I scroll past hundreds of videos of girls making “girl dinner,” or posts of new fur coats, or videos of thrifting hauls. Everything becomes a blur and I am filled with an uneasiness. It is almost as if our identities have all been morphed into one giant blob. Everything is the same. On TikTok — and by default in the real world — we have all just become mere copies of each other. Nothing is original. This realization that originality has been destroyed by TikTok brought me back to my readings of Theodor Adorno and capitalism’s commodification of mass culture.  

In Adorno’s work Schema of Mass Culture it is stated that all mass culture is fundamentally adaptation. This adaptation is to capitalist structures and is prevalent within our everyday lives. Adorno argues that every element of mass culture is molded and formed through the same formula—there is no freedom or originality within the products produced by mass culture, but the masses do not realize this. A quick scroll through TikTok will prove Adorno’s point. Our culture and our trends are mass produced, nothing is original. From “girl dinners” to TikTok dances, we are only producing copies. The schema of mass culture works in unison with the veil of capitalism by deceiving the masses through the sameness of commercial culture products. In other words, us, as the masses, or as the general public do not realize that we are being deceived by sameness. Capitalism tricks us all into thinking each thing we see, each advertisement we scroll by is different, but it is not. Everything is exactly the same — especially when it comes to TikTok’s micro-trends. 

Mass culture, like TikTok, does not produce original products but rather produces products which are entirely homogenized. In producing products which are the same, TikTok controls individuals into thinking they have freedom and choice. Though this idea of freedom and choice is manipulated by capitalism. There is no freedom or choice when our reality is being digested through TikTok. Following trends, buying products, liking or following influencers, all of these actions are manipulated actions. Nothing is natural. TikTok blurs the distinctions between reality and representation and as such deceives the masses so much that the masses become dependent upon TikTok as their form of reality. For Adorno, mass culture then must act in the same way as TikTok. However, it is important to note that Adorno does not criticize the masses but mass culture itself. Adorno writes, “whatever is to pass muster must already have been handled, manipulated and approved by hundreds of thousands of people before anyone can enjoy it.” In other words, this is to say that TikTok depends upon the deception of the masses in order for success and enjoyment to occur. 

But, there is no original enjoyment of things, rather things are first deemed good by capitalist constructs and then we personally announce them as good. But our personal opinion is also manipulated and constructed. Mass culture, as Adorno suggests, relies on manipulation to control the consumer for profit. For example, TikToks rely on views and likes before enjoyment can occur. TikTok users, or the masses, look at views, comments, likes and so on before deciding for themselves if it is worth their time to watch and engage with and recreate. Viral TikToks are only viral because they have been pre-approved so to speak with our engagement. We don’t decide which TikTok goes viral, there is no choice, we are just merely following the masses. This decision the masses think they are freely making is manipulated by the very fact that hundreds of thousands of people have approved of it before them, because thousands of others have liked a TikTok then you will too. It is simply this commodification of selected interests that are a means that funnel into the end, that is the pecuniary of capitalism. In this way, mass culture is characterized by the control of the needs and desires of the consumers or masses for profit. There is no freedom or originality. On TikTok we copy viral videos because we know that in turn we will also go viral, but you are not making a free choice to produce the video, you are being implicitly told to make the video because you know you will get views and likes in return. As such, TikTok continually funnels out unoriginal content under the veil of creativity. 

This idea of sameness which mass culture produces stands in the way of freedom through deception under capitalist popular culture. Adorno writes in terms of information provided to the masses that, “there still prevails the iron law” that information “shall never degenerate into thought. This is ensured by the restriction of information to what the monopoly has supplied, to commodities, or to those people whose function in the business world has turned them into commodities.” In this way, Adorno suggests that information is constantly under the control of the culture industry or mass culture. The masses believe they have freedom but this freedom is deception due to “the restriction of information,” that Adorno suggests. This limiting of information is controlled by capitalist structures so as to limit the freedom of the masses in such a way that they still believe they have freedom. In limiting information, mass culture produces a formula of sameness in cultural products which destroys the individuals’ capacity to deeply think or imagine anything different from the said formula — this is what TikTok does too. The deception is so well rooted that the masses see these products, or these TikToks, as a true representation of reality. Though they are not. 

Capitalism has many veils which represent its monetary intent, hence turning the masses into commodities. Mass culture or popular culture is a significant representation of this veil in that individuals become filled with the liberal humanistic belief, couched in their leisure, that the choice which best suits their desires and needs are perhaps different from others. Yet, the invisible hand—mass culture—guides them to subscribe and capitulate to the dictates of capitalism. Our culture today, such as how Adorno described his, is entirely reliant upon the commodification and deception of the individual — TikTok is just one example of this deception. The individual exhibits no inherent freedom under the bounds of cultural capitalism and is instead deeply rooted in the deception and lack of information produced. Capitalism, through non-choice, sameness, and withheld information remains as the controller of our apparent needs and desires. The individual today is so caught up in social media and technology that the veil of capitalism becomes one which they no longer see. Mass commercial culture thus works as a means towards upholding this veil. Mass culture contains a singularity which is driven toward the capitalist end. The homogenized hegemony of mass culture enables mass deception.  It removes two fundamental principles of human freedom, that being choice and control.

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