Abstract
This presentation offers a re-appreciation of George Ritzer's (1993) McDonaldization of Society, which suggests that aspects of contemporary life become McDonaldized when they take on the principles of a fast-food restaurant. The presenter's central argument is that McDonaldization has become a cornerstone of modern living; an underpinning feature of the socio-political dimensions of our lives. The presenter covers the McDonaldization of sport through an analysis of how contemporary Australians watch the NBA, how Blinkist and AI changed how his peers approached reading and writing in their academic work, the rise of micro-credentialing in tertiary education, and the McDonaldization of eating, relationships, and information consumption. The presenter revisits Ritzer's (1993) principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control, specifically in the context of the modern NBA, exploring the various layers that make McDonaldization such a successful way of packaging and promoting a major component of our lives. The contemporary citizen doesn't watch NBA games in full. Instead, they follow stories, players, and games via Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and through a suite of podcasts set at 1.5 speed for maximum efficiency of information consumption. This trajectory of modern sport consumption mirrors the McDonalization of our social and political worlds, including how we date, eat, read and write, and consume information.