mass man

American  

noun

1. a hypothetical common man, especially one held to be typical of a mass society, to be characterized by the absence of unique values or distinct personality traits, to lack a sense of personal or social responsibility, and to be readily manipulated by the techniques developed by mass media.

---

Etymology

Origin of mass man

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

"The chief characteristic of the mass man is not brutality and backwardness," Hannah Arendt writes, "but his isolation and lack of normal social relations."

From Salon • Jan. 25, 2023

Vast crowds do not give the U.S. the sense of doom that Ortega y Gasset felt when he shuddered about "mass man."

From Time Magazine Archive

He was more interested in Joan the soldier as an embodiment of France, and most interested of all in Joan the revolutionary sounding the first, heady, rebel call to arms of insurrectionary mass man.

From Time Magazine Archive

But it was not until this hurlyburly century -- the American century, the century of mass man -- that pop simply took over.

From Time Magazine Archive

And from that burning mass man once more distributed fire to hearth and kiln.

From The Tarn of Eternity by Tymon, Frank