Alienation and Self Concern

      There are endless ways to take a critical eye to the way the media operates and how it impacts us as consumers, and also as coexisting beings. Marxist philosophy employs a lot of really interesting ideas and concepts for understanding and analyzing media and advertisements. Countless theories exist that pinpoint media and advertisements for making people as self-centered as they are today, especially in the US. Berger's article really made me consider exactly how the media influences the way people act, especially with regard to encouraging a materialistic culture, and through alienation.
     In advertisements for beauty products, for example, we alienate ourselves by thinking "wow, I could really use that facial moisturizer for myself," distancing ourselves from the vast majority of Americans who could probably also put said moisturizer to good use. In this way, we operate with self concern thanks to the media and advertisements because we are only ever made to picture and imagine ourselves using a particular product. 
     I thought this concept of self interest and alienation was particularly interesting because it's not really something that we take the time to consider. How many times have you really gotten to thinking about how much you think about yourself when you watch commercials, or how much you think about how YOU could benefit from something -- and even still, how many times have you ever even thought to consider how the actual advertisement is what's making you think about these things? We have gotten so caught up in the encouragement of living in a materialistic society that we hardly think of anything but benefitting ourselves - making us stronger, better, faster, thinner, prettier, healthier, etc. At the end of the day, what's the real worth in alienating ourselves due to our own self concern? I think this is Berger's entire point.