.IP7:DIGITAL
.LABOUR
A set of critical illustrations of digital labour and its exploitative qualities.
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.case 1:
.ASPIRATIONAL labour
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This is John. He’s an aspiring digital content creator. Two years ago, John opened his Youtube Channel titled “Digital Platforms Revolution” in which he uploads very elaborate videos discussing the features of different digital platforms for multimedia production.
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John was inspired to start his journey as an entrepreneur after exploring online articles, and digital tutorials that promote the spirit of passion-fueled careerism. Youtube has enabled John to have a web place where he can spend all his efforts “doing what he loves”.
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.case 2:
.surveillance technologies
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This is Ruth, an employee at one of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley. Ruth is of African descent and her ancestors were slaves who worked at cotton plantations in the Deep South of the United States in the 19th century.
Other relatives of Ruth, such as her grandfather, worked under poor and inhumane conditions in factories during the Industrial Revolution. Ruth looks back at the horrible stories of oppression, control, abuse, and meaninglessness her ancestors lived with gratitude that, unlike them, she lives in a free country where her rights are respected.
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.case 3:
.fauxtomation
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This is Mark, a low-income college student who after spending a few months looking for a job without success, found Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) on the internet.
The picture of a happy worker in a shiny room plus the tagline “get paid for completing simple tasks” was attractive enough for Mark to enter the world of performing tasks that computers can’t do properly.
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These stories were inspired by the literary works on digital labor of Crawford (2021), Duffy (2017), Gandini (2021), and Peuter & Young (2019).
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(References below)
references
Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI. Yale University Press.
Duffy, B. (2017). (Not) getting paid to do what you love: Gender, social media, and aspirational work. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
De Peuter, G., & Young, C. J. (2019). Contested formations of digital game labor. Television & New Media, 20(8), 747-755.
Gandini, A. (2021). Digital labour: An empty signifier?. Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 43(2), 369-380.