As a second screen, the mobile phone is embedded in most people’s daily lives and has become the norm in how we consume entertainment. With so much of people’s time and energy being spent on mobile phones, especially on some social media platforms, the concept of “audience commodity” is constantly being mentioned.
So I keep track of my social media usage on a random day and do some reflecting.
- The platforms I have used: Xiaohongshu(Red), Instagram and YouTube.
- My acts of use can be divided into viewing and actual participation.
It has been described as “China’s answer to Instagram”.
I have browsed for information on all three platforms. When I opened Red, I saw the opening screen ad and clearly marked “sponsored” ad space within the platform. More often than not, a specific post by a particular creator has either obvious or hidden advertising content. The situation on Instagram was better because I mainly followed close friends. There was less ad content than RED, except for a few ad posts that appeared every few posts I read. The case of YouTube is also different from others. I had to watch a few seconds of ads first to skip to the video I wanted to watch. Under the situation of browsing the information on the platform and viewing the various advertisements, I paid double ‘labour’ as a platform user. Browsing behaviour is not only sold to advertisers as a commodity by the platform but also adds value to the platform and is a ‘bargaining chip’ for the medium to negotiate with advertisers. The concept of ‘double commodification’ is involved here.
I also posted once when using Red, so the labour involved here differs. I did a Christmas-themed daily life journal in December, and the post on the 2nd was about that. I used photos to record the little things that happened to me that day and hit the hashtag #Plogmas to seek more views. According to the detailed categories, the labour I posted photos contains labouring activities and work of self-branding. I need to post pictures with some explanatory text so that viewers can better understand the story behind the photos.
I also need to focus on the aesthetics of the images and text layout, which is essential as more ornamental content will get more views and likes. I will also promote my posts based on the mechanics of pushing traffic to the platform. And I published such innovative posts to increase the variety of content on my account and present more possibilities in my personal life.
Having documented and reflected on my actions, I seem to have gained a new understanding of the profit-making mechanisms of these platforms, especially after reading AUDIENCE COMMODITY.
Whenever an individual like me clicks on a social media platform, the platform is able to learn about our personal preferences and summarise basic information based on an algorithm. Based on this information, which is already in the hands of the platform, countless individuals are classified into different groups. Then, different groups are packaged and sold to advertisers, which is the main source of profit for the platform. Advertisers generally pay different prices for the target groups corresponding to different products. Research shows that advertisers pay higher prices for men, whites and upper class young people.
The fact is that individuals like me who browse and post on social media are a fairly large group. Not many people follow our accounts, so the share of advertising on the platform is almost negligible for us, while the time and effort we put in is real. I do not think labour like this is proportional to the reward.