Assigment 1-Marisa Chung
Hello everyone! My name is Marisa Chung and our group had a chance to discuss about the Trebor Scholz’s Digital Labor. During our discussion, we all agreed that Facebook makes their enormous amount of profit in numerous ways. Whether it is by advertisement, collecting our data, or simply by tracking our interest, we are being sold as the “product” as it is mention in the article. We focused more on advertisement because we believe that other companies pay Facebook to advertise their product so that we, Facebook users, can see it and purchase the items. Our likes and interests is what our advertisement “feed” consists of. Facebook can be a great source to keep in touch with people all over the world but it unfortunately comes with a lot of baggage.
The reality is that we as the “products” being sold” are aware of this situation but continue to use it regardless because of its convenience. The buying and selling of data complicates the way we differentiate between work and leisure because Facebook no longer becomes a social networking website where it allows users to interact with others during their “spare time”. Everything has become business related which in many ways seems unfair. Facebook claims to be “free” but it really isn’t.
Best,
Marisa
