You’re replaceable – the new working world

Liquid labour explores the idea of interchangeably within jobs – and the changing way that all working members of society are starting to blend their work life and their everyday life. The journalism industry is an example of liquid labour – very rarely nowadays do newspapers generate stories solely from their writers. Freelance journalists go out and get stories and THEN go to these newspapers as opposed to that same newsroom churning out stories from their own writers, and this has become the norm among the major media outlets.

The increasing popularity of social media in the last 5-7 years has also led to many different types of jobs being created – ones that you don’t think exist when all you come up with is a hashtag, or take a couple of good photos that go viral, both of which can easily lead to a high level marketing job for a company looking to improve their online presence.

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The Cyberspace Legacy

After going through the lecture this week – I couldn’t stop relating back to the fact that my generation are the ones who grew up ALONG with the internet – when we were born in the mid 90’s, the internet was in a sort of primitive stage amongst the public. It was prevalent, but nowhere near fulfilling its potential.

A cyberspace is a “virtual space created by interconnected computers and networks on the Internet”, and I feel that that term was born along with us. In 2007, as Facebook exploded in popularity amongst the globe – we were the first mass generation of teenagers to be growing up on social media.

I then got to thinking – well since we have grown up alongside this cyberspace, we have probably detailed an insane amount of information of the years, and it made me feel a little worried, for what? I don’t know. The idea that all my information from when I was about 11 to now is pretty much all online and always will be accessible is a little daunting… but what do I have to hide? Nothing, until I don’t know it.

The medium may change – but the reality wont

The invention of the telegraph set the wheels in motion for what would eventually become the complex global communications that we have now. The tangible aspect of words and messages containing information was completely flipped on its head as we were suddenly able to wire these messages across the world and under the sea and wherever else.

But if there’s one thing you could be sure of – it’s that the social interactions never really differ between the first telegraph and the newest iPhone. People ghost your calls/telegraphs, and that girl you fancy? Maybe she just wanted to friends. Hopefully the dots and dashes don’t break your heart.