Surveillance, accumulation of capital and exploitation on social media

Mickey D.

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Surveillance, accumulation of capital and exploitation on social media

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Accumulation of capital, exploitation on social media, Internet, social media, media consumer

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New technologies have changed the way people communicate and see each other: we all became the objects of surveillance voluntarily and non-voluntarily. Social networks, closed-circuit television (CCTV) in supermarkets and in railway stations, marketing agencies – all these are slowly turning our lives into constant reality shows. The new media and social networks transformed electronic technologies and social platforms from the sources of providing communication and bonding people together to the source that collects information about its user's and make profit from it. Thus, each advantage, as the possibility to achieve all the information with incredible speed, is always balanced with some disadvantage, such as general surveillance, especially if it concerns technology.

New technologies have changed the way people communicate and see each other
I should notice that in order to understand the concept of surveillance better it is necessary to look closer to the panoptical surveillance
Therefore, there are still very different opinions regarding the necessity of surveillance
There are many different methods of surveillance and it is impossible to proclaim them all as either good or bad at once
Farinosi (2011) claims that with the emergence of social platforms, there is a blurring line between who is the observer and who is being observed
Earlier personal information was mostly unavailable while now it is fully accessible to companies and government not mentioning common users
Moreover, Farinosi claims that in today's world of virtual reality only total visibility is a permanent concept
The studies made by Farinosi (2011) and Netchitailova (2012) demonstrate how Facebook users think about their privacy on social networks and what are the disadvantages and advantages of surveillance
There are more downsides in the corporate surveillance than benefits
The second downside of corporate surveillance is that it can be used for discipline and power
The capitalism is built on consumption, and social media that is so intimate with its users by knowing their interests and hobbies helps to promote consumption in capitalist society
The third downside of surveillance caused by lateral surveillance or when one user of social networks can observe activities and actions of other user
Despite that surveillance most of the time seen as negative there is a positive side of it
Surveillance is a multidimensional aspect and controls different parts of the overall population in its management of the capitalism states
Capitalist is commonly referred to when one looks to define a given economy and how the market and other economic factors are controlled
Political power is said to be a powerful tool in a capitalist state and a level of control is derived from this area
However, the political and economic capitalist state should heavily be criticized since it is seen as a form of control that relies on the surveillance to come up with different manipulative methods
In this paragraph I want to address some alternative ways to fight against surveillance on social media
Therefore, the question of surveillance is one of the most important in today`s reality where Internet technology has occupied the central place in the lives of adults and children

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[...] Surveillance in the internet and other areas ensures that the people in government and in control can limit others and ensure that they have constructively reduced them considerably. The political state like the economic state relies heavily on the information that it collects from the media platforms and different areas in order to come up with ways to control people and their opinions. They ensure that the information that they get is used in structuring and formulating systems that are used in the control process by the people in power. [...]

[...] First, it is lateral or horizontal surveillance, where one person can observe activities and actions of other users (Farinosi 2011; Humphreys, 2011). When we are looking at our friends' profiles and browsing through their wallpapers we are performing a lateral surveillance. The second type is voluntary or “participatory” surveillance; where people are voluntary participate in the process of watching their behaviours because they think it is for their benefit (Humphreys p. 577). Users voluntarily post pictures and ‘check-in' in the places because they think it is for their own benefit. [...]

[...] Promoting consumption might not be seen as a big concern. However, Fuchs (2011) and Albrechtslud (2012) argue that surveillance can be harmful to individuals because aggregated data can create false assumptions about people based on their looks, religious views and ethnic background. Such assumption can charge users with terrorism and wrongly assuming innocent citizens of being criminals (Fuchs p. 293). The third downside of surveillance caused by lateral surveillance or when one user of social networks can observe activities and actions of other user. [...]

[...] 258-275). Toronto: Nelson Education. [...]

[...] 684). For example, a person who searched in Google for a particular product notices the ad of that product in all his/her social networks. We all notice that the advertisement in our browsers fit our recent requests: if we were looking for a new pair of sneakers soon enough we notice banners with sneakers ads. Such methods of marketing are intrusive, violating, and irritating. Moreover, when the information from users' personal profiles can be directly sent or sold to companies. [...]

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