2012/8/05
Ian Bogost - What should we do for a living? Some comments on "The Facebook Illusion"
Bogost follows up on a Ross Douthat column by asking the question that matters:
That is to say, the reason companies like Facebook can exist is because so many people have leisure time bought by jobs in the non-Internet economy that make it possible for them to freely participate and contribute to these high-leverage online startups. Thus, the suggestion that everyone become an Internet entrepreneur has a major problem: the Internet economy only “works” is because people still have jobs that pay them in order to have the leisure to become the products of Internet companies (as data, as advertising). Which suggests a question: what are we supposed to do for a living in the “new economy?” If the entire thing is propped up on an implicit subsidy from the consumer economy, then the answer to that question might be… well, you tell me.