Facebook Wages Mini-Intervention

Inspired by the idea of ‘Wages for Facebook’, Cam and I wanted to do something to put this idea out there. We decided to make some fake payslips and letters from ‘Facebook’ and give them to people we spotted browsing the website in the library. A few of these people agreed to be interviewed, which we filmed and made into a video.

Browsing and using Facebook is something which so many of us do everyday. It is an extremely prevalent part of contemporary life. For most of us (as we can see in the video) using Facebook is something we do to have a break from real work. There is often a sense of guilt form spending ‘too much’ time on Facebook, as this time is now wasted.

This mini-intervention aimed to subvert the idea that using Facebook is simply innocuous wasted time that nobody profits from, as money is being made out of any time spent of Facebook. Putting the possibility of being paid for using Facebook out there was meant to highlight the idea that Facebook time is in a way, work time. Whenever someone networks using Facebook, money is made. Of course, the user isn’t the one profiting, so it could be said that Facebook is, in it’s own way, a form of unwaged labour. 

Although the people we spoke to didn’t generally agree with the idea behind Wages for Facebook, the aim wasn’t to get people to start demanding money for their time on Facebook. We wanted to put the idea across in a creative, easily understandable way. Making a physical symbol of paid work, a payslip, was how we chose to do this. We felt that the bizarre situation of being handed a payslip while just browsing Facebook would highlight the fact that the idea of Facebook as unwaged work is such an alien concept. 

The website from Cam’s original post on the topic (http://wagesforfacebook.com) puts this down to the capitalist system: 

CAPITAL HAD TO CONVINCE US THAT IT IS A NATURAL, UNAVOIDABLE, AND EVEN FULFILLING ACTIVITY TO MAKE US ACCEPT UNWAGED WORK

UNDER CAPITALISM EVERY WORKER IS MANIPULATED AND EXPLOITED AND HIS/HER RELATION TO CAPITAL IS TOTALLY MYSTIFIED

WE MUST ADMIT THAT CAPITAL HAS BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL IN HIDING OUR WORK

There are clearly many factors which affect how we define how our time is spent. If we don’t see Facebook as work time, then it makes sense that it’s defined as wasted time. Does the reminder that someone profits from Facebook change how we define the way this time is spent?