Blog 5: Intertangled Webs and Fordism

Intertangled Webs and Fordism

Image 1: Fordism in action

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines fordism as “a technological system that seeks to increase production efficiency primarily through carefully engineered breakdown and interlocking of production operations and that depends for its success on mass production by assembly-line methods.” (Merriam Webster 2013) A form of fordism can be seen in virtual networks, in particularly on Instagram. By advertising on such networks there is a mass production assembly line being promoted. Many shops, especially clothing shops, advertise online to get their products out there. Through people liking and reblogging pictures of their products the initial step in the production process begins. By becoming more popular on virtual networks they gain more customers which results in the shop needing an efficient fordism process to get their products out to customers as efficiently as possible. Roger Wilkinson in the lecture refers to fordism also as a metaphor for the production of sameness e.g. cars, housework/ wives, education system and consumer goods. This can also be viewed on virtual networks in various circles on it as people post very similar things to one another. One example is the fitness phase a vast majority of people I follow seem to be obsessed with. It is almost impossible to scroll down my feed lately and not see multiple gym or healthy food posts!

Buchanan (2002) relates the food web to that of a social community or virtual network due to how species are linked together in a tangled pattern that is not evident to outsiders. It appears to be lacking in organization due to the order of things quite often being hidden. Instagram portrays a hidden web as users simply see who is following who, having a very one sided view on people’s relationships with one another. Going through peoples different followers you are able to see what mutual friends that you share and also the different types of people that are interested in a person’s blog but not the virtual side to it. Quite often people gain followers and follow people that are on the other side of the world even though they have never met them but because of similarities they share in likes/ dislikes they enjoy viewing each others blogs, creating a virtual web of friendships.  

References:

Buchanan, M. (2002). Tangled Web, in Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (pp. 138-155). New York, NY: W.W. Norton. 

Merriam Webster. (2013). Fordism. Retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fordism

Wilkinson, R. “Lecture 7.” James Cook University. BA1002. Our Space: Networks,Narratives and the Making of Place. Cairns, Qld. 10 September, 2013.

Image Credit:

BBC. (n.d). Photo journal: Rise and fall of mass production [Image]. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/business_rise_and_fall_of_mass_production/img/10.jpg on 12th September 2013