“All the snapping and posting of photos, liking, commenting, linking, and clicking is happening without any compensation for this sweat. No wonder Zukerberg’s personal net worth is 34 billion. Youtube is saturated with videos of young people — many in their teens — testing out their skills at contributing to the world, offering tutorials in bow-tie tying, make-up tips, computer application reviews, movie reviews and many, many software tutorials focused on anything from Final Cut Pro to InDesign — high end and complicated applications, which they’ve clearly mastered. The beneficiaries of all of this generous labour are not only those whose lives are made slightly more easy, but, even more so, the companies who create the products that these kids are all helping us to use. The demand on Adobe from customers struggling to sort out Final Cut is much less because of the unpaid labour of young people.”
About
Jeff Watson is an artist, designer, and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
-