Lisa Nakamura opens the article by bringing up a critical point in the class: the move from material to immaterial in today’s society and economy. She poses the question of how to measure such success under this immaterial system. Such things as “likes” are the new type of currency on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.
She transitions this line of thinking into bringing up one of the main sources of labor that powers the engine of the internet: female labor. Women are being forced to work in horrible conditions around the world. Certain places in East Asia are forcing women of color to work in electronic factories. In New Mexico, Navajo women are working for less than the U.S. minimum wage.
Nakamura also brings up the oppression of certain sexual minorities in the work force, such as that of gay people or members of the transgender community. She compares these workers who retweet and post things dealing with discrimination to that of venture laborers.
A large portion of this article reminded me that Lanham’s attention economy point. Many of these workers, some successful, others not, attempt to bring said attention to their conditions and mistreatment in the workplace. Many of these instances will go to other websites that will specifically use counter speech to keep the discriminated classes safe in the workplace. None of this could be done without the attention given to social media.
Jake's Blog 