Digital Prosumer Labour as Covert Labour in the Context of Prosumption
Beyzade Nadir ÇetinCurrently, Web 2.0 social media platforms have transformed into both a space in which time, place and subjectivities are consumed and their users develop new practices. In these platforms, the production practices, which emerge as co-production, co-creation, and user-generated content production, appear during the platform users’ consumption act and these users become the subjects producing while consuming. The activities that are thought to occur in the form of producing while consuming or consuming while producing are called prosumption and those who perform these activities are called prosumer. The users of Web 2.0 social media platforms who participate as prosumers in the process of prosumption create a new form of labour with the production practices in the act of consumption. There are various doubts about whether this type of work, which can be conceptualized as digital prosumer labour, has the traditionally accepted labour qualifications. In this study, it is aimed to determine whether digital prosumer labour, which is thought to be a questionable structure and conceptualized as covert labour, has the quality of classical labour understanding. Within the scope of this aim, it is attempted to analyse with a theoretical point of view, whether digital prosumer labour creates a commodity with use value; whether a specific labour time is spent for the creation of this commodity and whether the means and objects of production are used in the process of prosumption.
Üretüketim Olgusu Bağlamında Örtülü Emek Olarak Dijital Üretüketici Emeği
Beyzade Nadir ÇetinGünümüzde Web 2.0 sosyal medya platformları hem zaman, mekân ve öznelliklerin tüketildiği hem de kullanıcılarının yeni üretme pratikleri geliştirdikleri bir uzama dönüşmüştür. Bu platformlarda ortak çalışma, birlikte yaratım ve kullanıcı odaklı içerik üretimi şeklinde ortaya çıkan üretme pratikleri, platform kullanıcılarının tüketim edimleri esnasında belirmekte ve platformların kullanıcıları, tüketirken üreten öznellikler haline gelmektedir. Tüketirken üretme ya da üretirken tüketme biçiminde gerçekleştiği düşünülen faaliyetler üretüketim, bu faaliyetleri gerçekleştirenler ise üretüketici olarak adlandırılmaktadır. Üretüketim sürecinde üretüketici olarak sürece katılan Web 2.0 sosyal medya platformlarının kullanıcıları tüketim edimi içerisinde gerçekleştirdikleri üretme pratikleri ile yeni bir emek biçimini oluşturmaktadır. Dijital üretüketici emeği olarak kavramlaştırılabilecek olan bu çalışma biçiminin, geleneksel anlamda kabul edilen emek niteliklerini taşıyıp taşımadığı hususunda çeşitli kuşkular vardır. Bu çalışmada, kuşkulu bir yapı arz ettiği düşünülen ve örtülü emek olarak kavramlaştırılan dijital üretüketici emeğin klasik anlamda emek niteliği taşıyıp taşımadığının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaç kapsamında teorik bir bakış açısıyla dijital üretüketici emeğin, kullanım değeri içeren bir meta yaratıp yaratmadığı; bu metanın yaratılması için belli bir emek zamanın harcanıp harcanmadığı ve üretüketim sürecinde bu sürece ilişkin üretim araç ve nesnelerini kullanıp kullanmadığı analiz edilmeye çalışılacaktır.
Web 2.0 social media platforms have become one of the most important representatives of the concept of prosumption, in which production and consumption processes intermingle and the boundary between production and consumption is eliminated. In particular, the collaborative work on these platforms, user-generated content production, and data sharing among the users can be regarded the examples for such prosumption activities. In recent years, the extraordinary developments in information and communication systems, internet technology in particular, have caused the users to pay attention to their activities on Web 2.0 social media platforms. In the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram, users produce digital data in formats called user-generated content production. The produced digital data transforms into commodities purchased by advertisers, who have to measure consumers’ preferences, tastes, and perceptions. As a result, the users of Web 2.0 social media platforms have become producers who produce data about themselves and other users in the space they have entered to consume time and space. Therefore, the users as they producing while consuming, and consuming while producing, become prosumers. This process, in which users produce meaning, is considered as intangible production activity based on codes, software, and data.
At the present time, social media platforms, which have transformed into consumption spaces, have become the main area of intangible production activities. Social media platforms have turned into a sphere of consumption of time, in which users spend their leisure time in an active way; of consumption of body/subjectivity, with the reflection of the personal visuals and lifestyle presented in the profiles and blogs created; and the consumption of space, with the access of produced products and experiences or introducing these products and experiences. Although the activities realized in such platforms are essentially an act of consumption, they have become a kind of production practice as they produce thoughts, perceptions, preferences, tastes, and works in the process. On social media platforms, the meaning is the main object of production. Meaning, on the other hand, is the consequence of a kind of cognitive labour activity, which includes intangible production processes in its essence. The meaning in the context of the generated contents is transformed into digital commodities that are recorded, encoded and kept as data sets in virtual space. The digital commodity, which mainly reflects the preferences, tastes, desires, and tendencies of the consumer or the one, who desire to consume, draws the attention of the actors of capitalism (advertisers), who are active in the creation of demand for consumption. The digital commodity that is formed in this way is considered as a product and experience that can be bought and sold within the system. On a social media platform,
- profiles created by people;
- assessments of other profiles established on such platforms;
- images uploaded by users and the comments or likes to those images;
- various groups and communities established jointly with other profile holders within the platform,
provide data that lists individual differentiation and subjective preferences as contents created by users on Web 2.0 platforms. This data becomes the source of an unlimited number of information for brand creation, especially advertising, and all kinds of promotional activities. The profit-oriented companies that own these platforms are able to sell this data, which is accumulated by users in their databases, to any commercial enterprise, especially other advertising agencies. Thus, these platforms, where people enter to consume time, body/subjectivity, and space, but simultaneously produce digital data, are transformed into production areas where an economic organization is organized. In this case, the distinction between consumption and production disappears, the consumer is transformed into an individual who can be evaluated as a producer at the same time and the prosumption process takes place.
This prosumption process indicates a cognitive way of study. The aim of this study is to analyse the cognitive digital labour processes of the producers, which are produced by the users of the web 2.0 social media platforms as the data commodities produced by the profit-making owners of these platforms. In this context, prosumer’s labour is regarded as covert labour throughout the study. In this study, the concept of covert labour refers to the labour force that uses social media platforms to carry out a consumption act, but produces a commodity that can be bought and sold without being aware of the contents they create, and cannot make any financial gain (free) as a result of this production.
Currently, the production activity, which is based on the production of cultural meaning, content, labour, and data, is called intangible production and the labour, which performs this production is called intangible labour. In this study, cognitive digital prosumers, who are accepted to produce intangible production, have labour value as they
- produce a product equal to a commodity as a result of their activities,
- carry out these activities in a certain time of labour, and
- use various labour objects and tools in the process.
