Week 5 - Prosumer Culture

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Before commenting on how I am a prosumer the term needs to be defined. Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010, p. 14) state, “Prosumption involves both production and consumption rather than focusing on either one (production) or the other (consumption).” In simple terms the producer is the consumer at the same time. An example of this is Wikipedia, the public produce the content that the public consume. Academics have suggested that this is a new form of capitalism that exploits the public through free labour. Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010, p. 14) further comment “prosumer capitalism control and exploitation take on a different character then in the other forms of capitalism, there is a trend toward unpaid rather than paid labor and toward offering products at no cost.” An example of this is McDonaldisation. Ritzer (2008[1993]) states in Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010, p. 18) consumers have been put to work in the fast food industry, they are expected to serve as their own waiters by carrying their own meals to their tables or back to their cars and as a bus person by disposing of their rubbish after their meal. Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010, p. 18) present further examples of prosumers such as ATM Machines, Self Checkout at the Supermarket, fuelling a car at the service station and using do it yourself medical technologies such as pregnancy tests. In all these cases the individual doing the act is producing and consuming at the same time hence prosumer.

The rest of this blog post will focus on Ritzer’s model of prosumption and how I produce and consume my own identity through Social Media.

So now we know what Prosumption is how am I a prosumer? Through technology and the rise of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram I am a prosumer. It is here that I present myself to the world through post and tweets about myself, pictures of the events and things I have been up to as well as retweets and posts of people I follow and like. Here I produce and consume content at the same time. The second part of the prosumer ‘doing it for free’ is evident as here through my interest advertising is targeted at me. So if I post about going to the gym or a new t-shirt I just brought there is usually advertising for a new protein shake or shop that has opened up in my area. Business is making a profit through content that I produce and consume. Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010, p. 26) state, “Users are the producers, but the profit, or at least the potential for profit, still belongs to corporations.” It is evident hear that I produce and consume my identity through Social Media.

Reference List:

-Ritzer, G & Jurgenson, N 2010, ‘Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 10, no. 13, pp. 14, 18, 26.

-Picture: http://danaseero.capinc.com/Portals/165902/images/Prosumer.jpg