100 Things You Can Do to Resist McDonaldization
- Don't patronize McDonaldized establishments
- Organize a protest
- Attend a protest
- Make flyers about the dangers of McDonald's and McDonaldization
- Volunteer one hour a week for your favorite local charity
- Get to know your neighbors
- Talk to your friends and family about McDonaldization
- Cook a homemade meal for yourself and friends – buy the ingredients from local shops
- Start petitions
- Sign petitions
- Make it "uncool" with friends to support McDonaldization
- Make your own clothes
- Shop at thrift and secondhand stores
- Plant a garden – even if just on your windowsill
- Use a midwife
- Go camping in the rough
- Avoid prepackaged vacations
- Join Slow Food Movement
- Join Slow Cities Movement
- Recommend this book to your book club – if you are not a member of one, start one!
- Ask to go "behind the scenes" at a McDonald's and see how the food is actually prepared
- Get a job at McDonald's and try to "humanize" the experience
- Read The McDonaldization of Society
- Attend a local cultural performance rather than renting a movie from Blockbuster
- Avoid using dating websites
- Attend a local sporting event rather than watching one on television
- Write a letter to your doctor, HMO, and congressperson expressing concern about the McDonaldization of the health care industry
- Research politicians and their views before giving them your vote based on catchy sound bites
- Do not watch televangelists but visit the religious setting of your choice in person (if you are religious at all)
- Try to have non-scripted conversations with staff at McDonaldized places as well as telemarketers
- Make a grocery list rather than just wandering aisles – this will help avoid falling prey to strategic product placement
- Go fishing – catch your own dinner!
- Avoid partaking in false friendliness
- Buy crafts from the actual artisans rather than mass manufactured crafts
- Obtain a copy of the fact sheet that sparked McLibel – "What's Wrong with McDonald's: Everything They Didn't Want You to Know" – make copies, and distribute it.
- Join National Heart Savers Association
- Contact Sprawl-Busters and find out more about how to keep big box stores from entering your community
- Patronize local coffee shops rather than Starbucks
- Only purchase and drink Fair Trade coffee
- Educate yourself
- Educate others
- Avoid living in apartments or tract houses (if you must, humanize it)
- Avoid daily routine as much as possible
- Do as many things as you can for yourself
- Hire a local accountant rather than H&R Block
- Use a local doctor or dentist rather than a McDoctor of McDentist
- Use the local storefront optometrist rather than Pearle Vision
- Go to a local barber or hairdresser rather than Hair Cuttery
- Join a knitting society
- Organize a board game night for you and your friends
- Frequent local cafes and delis – support neighborhood small business
- Use cash rather than credit cards
- Send back to the post office all junk mail, especially that addressed to "occupant" or "resident"
- When dialing a business, always try to speak to a live person
- If a computer phones you, set the phone on the ground to keep the computer droning on so you will not be bothered by other such calls
- Put yourself on the federal Do Not Call list
- Never buy artificial products
- Use public transportation
- Seek out restaurants that use real china and metal utensils
- Avoid the use of Styrofoam and other environmentally damaging materials
- Read The New York Times rather than USA TODAY
- Watch as little television as possible
- Spend an afternoon in the park talking with friends
- Never enter a domed stadium or one with artificial glass
- Avoid classes with exams graded by a computer
- Seek out your professors – get to know them and let them get to know you
- Walk
- Go to no movies that have roman numerals after their names
- Hire an independent babysitter like a neighbor or local responsible high school student rather than leaving your child at a McChild center
- Lead efforts to keep McDonaldization out of the school system
- Attend smaller, less or non-McDonaldized educational institutions
- Do not take children to fast-food restaurants or on McDonaldized vacations – teach them to enjoy non-McDonaldized institutions and vacations
- Share this list with a friend
- Wear earth and worker friendly clothing and shoes
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
- Start a savings account rather than spending money on non-necessary consumer items
- Try to humanize your relationship with your boss and co-workers
- If you do eat at a fast-food restaurant, avoid the drive-through window
- Be aware
- Never drive an SUV or other environmentally unfriendly vehicle
- Ride a bicycle or moped
- Never buy bottled water
- Always vote
- Use energy saving devices
- Landscape your yard with local plant species
- Only buy fruits and vegetables when they are in season
- Smile
- Avoid prepackaged foods
- Learn what other people are doing
- Become knowledgeable about world affairs
- Eat at "authentic" restaurants of ethnic cuisine rather than Americanized imitations
- Start small – do not try to change the world in a day
- Do not buy furniture at IKEA. If you do go, avoid using their pre-designated walkway
- Encourage others to resist McDonaldization
- Do not use ATM's – visit live tellers inside the bank
- Make your own health shakes at home rather than buying them from 7-11 or Starbucks
- Criticize McDonaldization – and do it loudly!
- Be aware of where your food is made, and how it is processed, packaged, and shipped
- Run for political office and, if you win, effect change
- Create your own list of ways to resist McDonaldization
To share your additional suggestions for resisting McDonaldization, email us at info.pineforge@sagepub.com or post them as comments on our Myspace page at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=220802762 . |