Week 8

In the digital age, social media has become a part of people’s daily lives. Every interaction that seems easy is actually creating value for the platform, transforming it into a form of invisible labour. I’m deeply involved in it too, relying on platforms such as WeChat, Douyin and Xiaohongshu for my daily entertainment and socialising needs. Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is open WeChat, check new messages, chat with friends and share my schedule. I also browse moments and forward articles I am interested in. These actions have become my invisible labour. As Cohe (2013) points out, social media platforms turn users’ social activities into tradable products. I increase the readership of the article and the platform records my behavioural data and optimises the recommendation. This data creates value for the platform, and all I get is a moment of social satisfaction.

In the afternoon, I usually turn on Douyin to relax, from funny videos to make-up tutorials, the recommended content always catches my attention. Whenever I watch, like, comment or share a video, these behaviours are recorded by the collaborative filtering recommendation and become the basis for the platform to optimise content and place ads. My use is directly involved in the production of the value of the data that becomes one of the measures of the value of the video and affects the earnings of the creator.

In the evening, I would open Xiaohongshu to search for the make-up products I saw in the afternoon. In bookmarking and ordering through the platform’s links, my behaviour helped Xiaohongshu generate more recommended content and also generated direct revenue for the merchant and the platform. Through the link, the brand profits from my purchase and the platform gets a commission through the advertiser. This process costs me time and money, while the platform and advertisers benefit from every click I make.

Duffy (2017) notes that social media users are often encouraged to engage in content creation out of interest. However, I found that this digital labour did not provide users with a fair reward. The platforms use these data to accurately place ads and make huge profits from advertisers. For example, WeChat analyses the content of my chats and the behaviour of my moments to build a picture of my interests and place ads based on it. Douyin and Xiaohongshu recommend content more accurately through my likes while inserting invisible adverts into their videos. These behaviours make it easy for the platforms to profit, with users unconsciously taking on the work. In addition, the large amount of user-generated content enhances the attractiveness of the platform and attracts more users and advertisers.

In the face of this state of affairs, we should analyse social media in depth and learn to use privacy protection tools to reduce the risk of personal data theft. Platforms need to explore fairer ways of making profits. For example, returning part of the advertising revenue to users in the form of data sharing. This helps to balance the interests of users and platforms and also incentivises users to be more active in content creation. Platforms should also support content creators to diversify and provide more content options for users with different needs, rather than simply catering for commercial advertising. Society needs to establish stricter regulations to ensure transparency and security of user data.