In this week's module we explored participatory culture and I wanted to focus specifically on playbor.
In Howard Rheingold's Net Smart: How to Thrive Online he explains in chapter three that there's power in social media participation but it only works if it's shared and amplified by others. Howard distinguishes the difference between low threshold participation and high engagement as well as, collective intelligence versus collaborative intelligence. Low threshold and collective intelligence social media activities examples could be simply reading, liking or commenting on posts. A more passive approach to social media. In contrast higher engagement and collaborative intelligence participation activities would include original posts, collaborating with others and moderating online communities, even leading them. Actually creating and driving the discussion online.
In our discussion post this week we explored our own online participation. I see myself on the low threshold side. Mainly viewing, liking and occasionally commenting on posts. I do however share fun memes and videos with friends in private chat. I like the idea of creating and collaborating but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. How about you? Where do you see yourself?
In the reading I was really intrigued by playbor. Is it labor? Is it play? Playbor is a combination of both. Sites use participation (let’s call it play) to essentially gather information about users and make money from ads (the labor part). Sometimes it’s deliberate and sometimes it’s unintentional. I tend to believe it’s mostly deliberate.
As I was reading I thought about apps like instagram and Facebook and their algorithms respond to user behavior. As I search for or like certain content I notice similar posts popping up in my feed the next few days. For example, I liked a lawn mowing video. It’s the guy who fixes super overgrown yards for free. The videos are sped up clips of him doing the work and it’s very satisfying. Now I see and like similar videos most days. Each video ends with the creator saying “like, share and subscribe so I can keep doing this for free”. The content creator is obviously making money on views and likes, etc.
I remember a specific time talking about air fryers with my wife as our air fryer’s door, at the time, fell off after extensive use. Then next thing you know on my instagram and Facebook feeds there are many air fryer ads and posts. These would continue to pop up for the next two or three days. The idea obviously being I’d click on an ad and buy a product and instagram for example would get a kickback for pointing me in that direction.
That experience made me question how such specific content was targeting me so quickly. It felt eerie. I later realized I had agreed to app permissions that allowed my phone to listen to conversations when using certain apps. I’ve since turned off those permissions and continue to check them periodically, since terms and conditions are often updated without much notice. Needless to day we still haven’t replaced our air fryer and we still joke about it.
Thanks for visiting. Feel free to chime in on the comments (no I'm not getting paid for this like the lawn guy)
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