Immaterial Labour & Essena O'Neil

After witnessing Essena O'Neil's viral post of 'quitting social media', it got me thinking about the number of people that represented businesses online. I'm going to be honest, it never really dawned on me that there were so many social media celebrities contributing to hundred's of business' capital, and for what? Most of the principle influencers online are not positing to Instagram because it is their passion or they genuinely enjoy it (I am guilty for this), rather they are contributing to a corporations business model. 

Watch the response video to O'Neil's video, it is interesting to see the counter argument. 

One of the articles that we discussed in class called, Learning to Immaterial Labour 2.0: Facebook and Social Networks, written by Cote and Pybus talk about this kind of "immaterial labour", and how individuals have come to sacrifice their own cognitive abilities in order to reach a position of cognitive capital. First off, the term "immaterial" is synonymous with the term irrelevant or unimportant, which get me thinking about how labour has evolved into a completely different term. Labour no longer involves the conventional practise of physical work, rather it has shifted into maximising social relationships, cognitive interactions and cultural subjects.  In addition, Cote and Pybus state, "What the ‘2.0’ addresses is the ‘free’ labour that subjects  engage in on a cultural and bio-political level when they participate on a site such as Facebook.In addition to the corporate mining and selling of user generated content, this would include the tastes, preferences, and general cultural content constructed therein". Here the authors tap into the uses of "free" labour, and how people, like Essena O'Neil who was completely encompassed in the social media platform of Instagram, become subjects in the corporate world online. Rather than just utilising the app for personal pleasures and experiences, people are becoming pons in the corporate game. Furthermore, this is exactly how businesses are successful, by people like Essena doing the work for them. By using influencers like Essena a business is able to strategically construct the way in which they influence consumers and generate revenue. 

What do you think? Do you think the term labour has completely shifted systems of thought? How? Is it a progressive movement that businesses are able to capitalise on cognitive behaviour and practice? Or is this going to lead more people like Essena to 'quit social media' and revolt against the way corporations can monopolize your media content?