How did Marx’s idea of alienation criticize industrial society?

Karl Marx’s concept of alienation serves as a fundamental critique of industrial capitalism, arguing that the system strips workers of their humanity by transforming labour into a commodity.12

Marx identified four primary dimensions in which workers become estranged under industrial conditions:

• The Product: Workers do not own the goods they create; instead, these products are appropriated by capitalists, becoming alien and oppressive realities that stand against the worker.13
• The Process: Under factory conditions, the work process is controlled by others. Workers lose their autonomy and become mere "appendages of the machine," stripped of the ability to engage in spontaneous or creative activity.23
• Human Potential: Because work is compelled rather than a creative expression of human nature, workers are denied the satisfaction of using their unique capacities, leading to self-estrangement.23
• Social Relations: The competitive nature of the market forces workers to view one another as rivals for jobs and wages rather than as fellow human beings, fostering social isolation.23

Ultimately, Marx argued that this alienation is an objective condition of capitalist production, where the worker’s life depends on things they create but do not possess.12