LIBR559A/Arvidsson, A., & Colleoni, E. (2012)

Citation

Arvidsson, A., & Colleoni, E. (2012). Value in informational capitalism and on the internet. The Information Society, 28(3), 135-150. doi:10.1080/01972243.2012.669449

Annotation

Arvidsson and Colleoni argue that prosumption, in the arena of social media, cannot be explained using Marx’s labour theory of value. Marx’s labour theory of value suggests that only labour time creates value, and then the commodities produced via such labour is solid for a profit. With social media, however, labour cannot accurately be quantified into time, because users are not “on the clock.” In addition, profit generally comes in the form of market value, rather than direct commodity exchange. They also suggest that, based off of profits versus the number of users, “exploitation” accounts for very little. In other words, Facebook, and other social media sites, make very little, yearly, per user. Finally, when it comes to value, a more accurate representation of value comes in the form of brand value, which is translated into market value. Brand value does not measure profit but, instead, user engagement. For instance, Facebook’s market value, which is based mostly on investments, is exponentially higher than its ad-generated revenue. As a solution, Arvidsson and Colleoni advocate redistribution of the value that circulates on financial markets, rather than the redistribution of profit that is accrued through ad-generated revenue.

This is an interesting take, but there are a few concerns. First, by focusing on Facebook, Colleoni and Arvidsson ignore all of the either social media platforms which also create ad-generated profit; Facebook users use other social media platforms as well. Second, the authors seem to think that the small amount that Facebook generates per user, mitigates the fact that billions of human hours are being exploited, for profit, yearly. In this case, the focus seems to be on price, rather than value, in the Marxian sense. Finally, Arvidsson and Colleoni’s solution, is more of a suggestion that has not at all been fleshed out in the article, than something that could potentially be implemented in its current state. That said, Arvidsson and Colleoni admit that more research needs to be performed in this area.