Monday, 28 November 2016
Exploitation in social media
In
the reading “Class struggles in the digital frontier”, Fisher introduces the
concept of audience labor theory with regards to the exploitation concurrent
with social media. He argues that unlike traditional media, the new media like
social media platforms follow Marx’s view of capitalism due to its more
collaborative and engaging environment with its digital users. Having said
this, do you think there every come a day when social media platforms like
Facebook will charge its users? Why or why not?
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I think social media platforms such as Facebook may charge users for certain aspects of its functions, but I do not think they will ever charge users for its entirety. As we discussed in previous weeks, there is an exchange between users and social media platforms like Facebook. From the information we provide to these outlets, we are able to get out the use value of the functions of social media sites. As information is now being used more and more as a commodity, companies have come to rely on the information extracted from these social media platforms as a way to maintain growth. With this being said, I think a lot of people would refuse to pay for social media sites and would discontinue its use if it ever came down to it. This is not beneficial for companies who rely on our information because that would eliminate several segments of the consumer market, meaning that they would have less access to valuable consumer information. As long as these services are free to consumers, they will not put as much thought into disclosing their information because of the exchange they get from it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Facebook will charge their social media users. This is because they have been given free access for so long that it would not make sense to charge them after years of free use. The company also makes money off of the content users produce. Therefore it would not make sense to charge users because they are already profiting from the organization. Facebook has managed to succeed as one of the most profitable social media platforms and it can be argued that users may boycott the website if they suddenly have to pay for its use.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Facebook will charge users for access to the website, but I do think that it will continue to exploit its users by selling audiences as a commodity to advertisers. Popular social media apps like Facebook and Snapchat now have more ads interspersed throughout user content than they did when they were first launched. If Facebook did start charging its users after years of being a free service, many would deactivate their accounts and possibly move to the next big platform. I think that Facebook would look to advertisers for more money than their users.
ReplyDeleteI think that Facebook will charge users an access fee eventually. I think that it is just such an easy way for a company like that to profit. When comparing Facebook in this sense, I look at Netflix and how they started charging people recently and the fee is still seen as cheap. Netflix has not lost any or at least not substantial users and I can see Facebook in the future initiating a standard one time only fee upon sign up. I feel like it will be grandfathered in, meaning that current Facebook users would not have to pay the fee. Rather, new users would.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that facebook will charge its users to use their website because they would lose many users by doing this. People would go to other free sites that allow you to connect with others or someone would build a new site that would allow you to connect with others for free. However, facebook will continue to exploit their users by collecting data and selling them to advertisers because they need to make money somehow.
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