fjjulio000 has 13 post(s)

The “Bored at Work Network” is described as a group of digital media users, particularly those who are bored in offices or other jobs, that are able to access and use digital media such as news and entertainment on devices such as computers/laptops, tablets or smart phones. Jonah Peretti, the cofounder of the Huffington Post and founder of Buzzfeed describes the contents that members of the “Bored at Work Network” access as “easy to understand, easy to share, and includes a social imperative” (p. 99). In addition, priority is placed on how popular and how fast an idea can be shared and spread over its quality.
These days, when some users get bored, it is very easy to just take out smart phones or tablets to surf the Web, watch movies or video clips, listen to music, read news or e-books, or play games. The “Bored at Work Network” types of contents are mostly what users with limited time (such as stolen moments at work as mentioned by Taylor on p. 99) engage themselves in since these contents are usually the popular ones and do not take up much of the users’ time to understand them. Because we know that these contents are always with us on our devices, we are very likely to get distracted wherever we are, even when we are in school or at work. Some users who get bored at work deal with the boredom by checking social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They share news and videos that not only interest them but also those they think that are easy to share and those that they want to go viral.

When I read Taylor’s argument about creative people being torn between staying in their chosen profession and being able to express their creativity and their love for what they do or choosing other profession or jobs for economic reasons (e.g. better pay), I thought of myself in that situation. I would like to be an early childhood educator because I love working with children, and I enjoy being creative in designing and planning curriculum and lesson plans, and even setting-up the classroom environment, activity centers, and materials that would foster young children’s curiosity and learning experiences. I understand that teachers are not paid as much as other profession. Even though I would really love to be an early childhood educator, there are also times when I get concerned whether or not this profession will be able to support me and my family financially. However, loving and enjoying what I do and being able to express my creativity in my work is more important to me because I believe I will be more successful if I love what I am doing. Whenever I have doubts (specifically about the economic part of it), I just think that I can find other ways to supplement my income like working extra for after school programs and in summer programs.

I also think about the other teachers who choose to stay in this profession for the same reasons that I have. However, this also brings up another issue about the limitations some teachers are experiencing in regards to being creative in their curriculum and lesson plans due to the shifting focus on academics and standardized testing for funding for schools. Because of the pressure to achieve high scores on these standardized tests, some teachers had no choice but to follow and just rely on textbooks, rote learning, and practicing the questions on the tests, rather than being creative in their teaching. Still, it’s the question between creativity in jobs vs. economics.

Artists and musicians are also caught in the same situation. They express their creativity through their work of art such as paintings and drawings and through their songs or instruments. But, they do not get paid enough. If we watch Youtube videos, we will find a lot of talented singers and musicians who share their songs and music in these channels. But how much are they getting paid? How many of them have to work additional jobs in order to do what they love and still survive financially? How many of them have to give up the profession they enjoy and love and work somewhere they can receive better pay?

Hello everyone,

My name is Joyce Julio. Our group’s reading was Scholz’s Digital Labor, and we discussed about how Facebook makes money out of its users (particularly its users’ data and activity such as likes and status updates) as well as how the buying and selling of data complicate the way that we differentiate between work and leisure.

We use Facebook for free, mostly to connect with family and friends, to keep ourselves updated on what’s new and what’s going on with them, and to share updates on what’s going on with us. We like our friends’ status, posts, and pictures. We also like certain companies’ Facebook pages and posts. We do these things for leisure. We do not think of this as labor. However, the collection and selling of our data and activities on Facebook to third party companies are sources of profits for Facebook. We may not be aware of this because we enjoy what we do on Facebook such as posting updates and pictures and liking company pages and services. But, the information we share and our activities are being tracked, collected, and shared by Facebook to third party companies.

One might wonder why, after searching for certain products on the Internet (not on Facebook but on sites like Google or Amazon etc.), you will see the same products or services that you searched for on your Facebook as advertisements. This is because unless you opt out of these advertisements options on your privacy settings, Facebook will show these targeted ads on your newsfeed as part of its agreement with those third party companies.

We use this “free” social networking site in exchange for our information and activities that they collect and use for their profits. When we like companies’ and services’ pages, it seems like we advertise for them for free while Facebook gets paid for them. It may seem like the free use of Facebook is just for leisure, but it also involves providing labor to them for free. And I think this is how the buying and selling of data blur the lines between work and leisure.

Thanks,

Joyce