Fordism- Showing assembly line.
Discussion
on 'stuff', Google +
Stuff, from the perspective of a sociologist can be translated as
'commodities'. The lecture during week 7 covering the topic on 'stuff'
discusses the metaphor of 'fordism'. The concept focuses on keeping a low cost
production line, and having a standardised output using assembly lines. However
this line of work - as mentioned on the lectures slides - states it is an
instrumental method; workers are paid off in order to work deskilling work. The workers in the labour workforce become commodities to the production of goods. This can also be seen on a virtual network, where the user becomes a commodity for the purpose of information selling: in order to boost marketing sales and aid in the prediction of trends. While the chosen network for this blog discusses Google + another similar social networking site known as Facebook, can be used to portray a mutual issue across all virtual networking sites. Taken from an article regarding Facebook, the company has been collecting personal data over seven years about user's desires... in hope that advertisers will become interested in this new form of commodity (Anonymous,
2012). This can be further supported by the theory that fordism tries to achieve 'sameness' which in turn would reflect the trends that users conform to on a social network.
| |
| Fordism- Showing assembly line. |
Stuff, from the perspective of a sociologist can be translated as 'commodities'. The lecture during week 7 covering the topic on 'stuff' discusses the metaphor of 'fordism'. The concept focuses on keeping a low cost production line, and having a standardised output using assembly lines. However this line of work - as mentioned on the lectures slides - states it is an instrumental method; workers are paid off in order to work deskilling work. The workers in the labour workforce become commodities to the production of goods. This can also be seen on a virtual network, where the user becomes a commodity for the purpose of information selling: in order to boost marketing sales and aid in the prediction of trends. While the chosen network for this blog discusses Google + another similar social networking site known as Facebook, can be used to portray a mutual issue across all virtual networking sites. Taken from an article regarding Facebook, the company has been collecting personal data over seven years about user's desires... in hope that advertisers will become interested in this new form of commodity (Anonymous, 2012). This can be further supported by the theory that fordism tries to achieve 'sameness' which in turn would reflect the trends that users conform to on a social network.
 |
| Depiction of a user as a commodity. |
Refering back to fordism, to Karl Marx this type of work is alienating the employees, taking
away any stimulating brain power of contributing to the final product. Within a capitalistic society, using the fordism metaphor, Karl
Marx's theory can prove to be convincing stating from the "commodity
fetishism" whereby labour activity confronts human beings as something
objective and independent, dominating them through external autonomous laws
(Musto, 2010)." This quote resonates with Google + and any other virtual
social network space, whereby the site contains users subjected to the
network's place laws, following the agenda of the website. This includes
conforming to the rules of the network place as shown in the privacy policy in http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. According to the lecture slide on
'tensions of (post) fordism' conformity is a value that seeks to match
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms (Wilkinson, 2013).
Google + - like the workings of post fordism - incorporates these beliefs as
mentioned, where users aim to express opinions, through blogs, that seek to entice
others users with matching beliefs, attitudes and so on.
References
Musto,
M. (2010). Revisiting Marx's Concept of Alienation. Socialism and
Democracy, 24(3), 79-101. doi: 10.1080/08854300.2010.544075
Google +, Privacy policy, link retrieved from:
http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
Anonymous. (2012). Just
Published - Facebook. Privacy Journal, 38(4),p. 7.
Wilkinson, R. (producer). (2013). Stuff, Markets and Manufacture [Video Podcast]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_312_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_42847_1%26url%3D
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