In our modern world, social media platforms like as Facebook exist as ‘free’ spaces for social interaction with our friends and family, freedom of expression, and connecting with other users. However, many scholars argue that the convenience of social media – where we can use Facebook without paying money– comes with the cost of our privacy and our free labour.
User commodification are significant issues in studies of social media. In his book The Political Economy of Communication (2009), Vincent Mosco defines commodification as “the process of transforming things valued for their use into marketable products that are valued for what they can bring in exchange” (Mosco 127). In other words, commodification is when corporations convert useful …show more content…
For instance, on Facebook, profits from selling the data users contribute on their platform without paying the users for their time and labour. Conversely, many scholars argue that free labour does not necessarily equal exploitation.
This literature review will analyse and review past and recent works by critical political economy, digital labour, and communication scholars on the issues of user-data commodification on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and how social media companies essentially rob users of their privacy and their labour value. However, this literature review will not explore government and public surveillance or data mining as those topics are too broad for this analysis of the effects of economic exploitation of users’ labour and their …show more content…
Author of the 2016 book Facebook for Dummies, Carolyn Abram argues that privacy on social media platforms is “common sense,” and that the user must “make an effort to be smart and safe online” (Abram 134). Abram also suggests utilizing Facebook’s various privacy settings, such as the blocking tool (to block specific people from seeing your page or from requesting you as a friend) or the limit audience tool (to limit which group of your friends can view your post), to ensure full control of what information you as a user would like to share (Abram
User commodification are significant issues in studies of social media. In his book The Political Economy of Communication (2009), Vincent Mosco defines commodification as “the process of transforming things valued for their use into marketable products that are valued for what they can bring in exchange” (Mosco 127). In other words, commodification is when corporations convert useful …show more content…
For instance, on Facebook, profits from selling the data users contribute on their platform without paying the users for their time and labour. Conversely, many scholars argue that free labour does not necessarily equal exploitation.
This literature review will analyse and review past and recent works by critical political economy, digital labour, and communication scholars on the issues of user-data commodification on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and how social media companies essentially rob users of their privacy and their labour value. However, this literature review will not explore government and public surveillance or data mining as those topics are too broad for this analysis of the effects of economic exploitation of users’ labour and their …show more content…
Author of the 2016 book Facebook for Dummies, Carolyn Abram argues that privacy on social media platforms is “common sense,” and that the user must “make an effort to be smart and safe online” (Abram 134). Abram also suggests utilizing Facebook’s various privacy settings, such as the blocking tool (to block specific people from seeing your page or from requesting you as a friend) or the limit audience tool (to limit which group of your friends can view your post), to ensure full control of what information you as a user would like to share (Abram