Main Ideas/Summaries
Social media continues to define the interactional space in the modern world. The digital space continues to expand with platforms that allow users to connect, share, and communicate with their close acquaintances. The different social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Tumblr, have all but expressed the positive change in society both at the workplace and at the enterprise level. Social media can be defined from various dimensions depending on the context from which the topic anchors. Christian Fuchs takes an indulging approach to his discussions on social media and its disruptive effect on social dynamics. Fuchs's ideation of social media is captured in various works with "Digital labor and Karl Marx," guiding most of his arguments in how social media in a short time has presently changed the general perception of the workplace and frequent interactions. In this work, Fuchs describes the concept of digital labor and its influence on the political and social economies in the current corporate environment. Fuchs focuses on how social media plays its part in cultural, political, and economic structures. The arguments across the article address the place of social media in digital labor and the power dynamics across corporate and social systems. The aim of the reasoning points to the alignment of social media to Karl Marx's ideas of capitalistic societies.
Fuchs correlates the influence of social media on modern economies, especially along the labor concepts drawing much of his inferences from Marxist labor theories. In the Labor Theory of Value, Karl Marx explains the value of commodities in markets based on the social aspects that shape the forces of demand and supply. The concept of the value of labor in social media anchors on the time factor, as discussed in the labor value theory. Fuchs introduces the concepts of play labor and consumption time through the determination of the time in leisure and production attached to the content uploaded on social media platforms (Fuchs, 2014). The two concepts of value help in dislodging the valuation considerations done in digital advertising through social media. According to Fuchs, corporate entities have to leverage their value on the compensation of both production and consumption time (prosumption). The value system of social media as a labor aspect has relied on the 'prosumption' concept. The definition of digital labor hence refers to the user time that illustrates the economic value based on content production and consumption. Corporate dynamics around social media have moved to place value on data traffic around sites, a concept that remains subjective to use time as well as experiences when visiting various platforms.
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Fuchs argues that the production and subsequent consumption of material on digital social platforms, including official company websites, defines the non-structured commodification leisure into productive labor. The argument draws from Marx's definition of disposable time because of wealth creation. According to Marx, the value was a result of the production of disposable time since labor demands changed with development stages (Fuchs, 2014). As such, the capitalistic nature of modern society to creating increased disposable time has allowed an increase in development. According to Fuchs, the increase in social media points to higher levels of growth in the production system, where direct forms of labor have ceased being the basics in wealth creation. Digital labor in the context of Karl Marx's capitalist society refers to the valuation of the disposable time social media users spend in creating and consuming media on these platforms. The time factor, as a concept of value hence determines the economic capital that such production and consumption are compensated. Digital labor accordingly outlines the commodification of disposable time channeled in social media use by both consumer audiences and content creators.
Key Concepts/Words
Digital Labor
The concept refers to the realm of the internet-based political economy that has informed the compensation tenets of all online platforms and contents. The value creation from disposable times by internet users has become a driver of wealth generation hence the inference of digital labor.
Social Media
The advent of digitized communication medium has created many interactive platforms that allow people to communicate, connect, share, and consume content with the help of data. The digitization of our social interactions through shared media has allowed the creation of a centralized pool of information that users can access. Social media has become the new mode of fast communication complementing the contemporary mass media platforms that were less interactive. Contextually, social media has been integrated into modern society's cultural and political economy leading to value generation.
Labor Theory of Value
Karl Marx defined capitalism based on how value systems help generate wealth. Labor remains a crucial tenet of the value system, and according to Marx, labor demands were subjected to the phases of development in society with a resulting need for creating disposable time. In his work, Fuchs employs the labor theory of value to help define how social media use generated wealth in modern society both at individual and corporate levels of the political economy.
Prosumption
The concept merges the aspects of production and consumption of social media content. Prosumption defines the time value in social media use in the modern political economy.
Playbor
The concept is shorthand for play labor, inferring to the leisure time used either in the creation of social media or digital content. The time factor in this concept is used in compensating for the value of the material created or consumed.
Commodification
The concept of commodification in a value system refers to the placement of value on a commodity. The commodification of social media bases on time factors that can either be determined by the time users of such platforms spend on their favorite sites or create content to share in the said platforms. Commodification hence explains how value is pegged on a commodity to make the items of wealth in the political economy.
Quotations for Discussion
Pg. 246. "Commodities have producers…" I choose the quotation as it points to a critical concept in Fuchs's discussion. The argument herein is important in the reading since it draws audience’s attention to the fact that, commodities are products that take time to realize. The quote helps in defining social media content commodification, placing the source of content at the production. As commodities, social media content undergo a value chain that includes manufacturing, consumption, and compensation. The change in digital space has not only caused disruption in value systems but social interactions, is it therefore appropriate to argue that social media users are benefactors of digital commodification?
Pg. 250. "Work requires information..." The short quote summarizes Marx's concept of value and labor. The argument from the quote remains important in that, it points to the fact that work is drawn from information, and the alternative being information is work. The quote explains the importance of evaluating digital content as work that consumes time in its production. From the arguments addressed by the quote, is it appropriate to conclude that time, as a factor of production, determines the value attached to commodities in markets?
Pg. 257. "All online time…" The quote is an elaborate explanation that defines the concept of disposable time and its inference to the social stage of development. The quote remains important in the reading in that, it helps put to perspective, Marx's theory of disposable time being because of wealth generation. As such, the quote provides a basis from which value can be deduced from all the time, leisure time, which social media users have diverted to create value through generating digital material for their audiences. The quote exhausts the argument on the need for placing value on social media content as it divulges the need for regarding time audiences spend on social platforms to be of value. The argument herein plays to the question that is it right to value digital labor and content based on time spent in their production, consumption, or both?
References
Fuchs, C. (2014). Digital Labour and Karl Marx . Routledge.
