Cynicism, social desensitization (insensitivity), imbecility and infantilization are, in my view, dominant traits of alienation as a consequence of the capitalist consumer culture that has commodified most social relations.
The ubiquity of information technologies contributes greatly to the growth of social alienation. Most of social interactions are increasingly mediated by technology, to the point that we are no longer able to socialize without resorting to electronic devices that have practically become biological appendages. City dwellers, especially those who migrated from the countryside with little schooling, are conditioned to adopt the competitive and individualistic way of life imposed by the capitalist market society. Of course, each citizen is a particular case, some will have family support, others will be on their own trying to survive in precarious conditions, competition for scarce resources in a sociocultural and economic environment where mistrust and exploitation are basic laws of survival.
Capitalist-type consumption societies offer a diversity of employment and business opportunities that help to remediate the immediate problem of survival, but with the growing commodification of human relations the feeling of belonging to a community is basically non-existent.
Uncertainty and helplessness are the constant driving many people lives who cannot expect anything from a dehumanized society that sees people as disposable useless trash. Capitalism in whatever shape or form will always produce social exclusion because the relentless, reckless parasitic rentier capitalist class is in a permanent state of war for dominance and control.
The emerging middle class tends to copy the consumption habits of the established upper-middle class and, in the case of developing countries the western consumption culture frequently functions as the role model.
The western consumption habits make people feel sophisticated, parroting and imitating influencers and celebrities that disseminate a delusional perception of western civilization through the superficiality of consumer culture, fame and success are enough to dazzle the consumer-spectators commodified human-beings in line to happily become transhumans.
