Social Media Make Us the Product—and the Unpaid Workers

If we’re not paying, we’re the product. Because social media is free, corporations profit from our likes, comments, and scrolling data. Apart from being the product, we’re unpaid workers too. Recently Seth Godin wrote about participating in social media as unpaid labor: “Labor is work that we get paid for. It’s work we wouldn’t do for free. And for most people on social media, it’s unpaid labor on behalf of the platforms.” His words made me rethink how to use LinkedIn, before quitting social media once and for all. Use it strategically to showcase your work and redirect people to a place you control. Keep it at an arm’s length. Otherwise, you’ll become the fuel for AI, algorithms, and robots you don’t control.