Reading reflections: April 6th

Among this week’s readings, two are concerned with the relationship between the virtual world and working as well as the economy. One of them is Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World, which focuses on the community of “gold farmers” in China, people who are employed to play online games to produce virtual commodities, which would then be sold to other gamers for money. This is a new industry that is even hard to be classified. The “gold farmers” work for long hours and earn less than 200 USD per month. Hence, the author argued that the presence of Chinese “gold farmers” is another example of China’s current role in global economy as a main source of cheap labor. In particular, the author mentioned three areas in China where the “gold farm” industry blossoms. I talked to my roommate, who is also from China and plays online games, and he confirmed that indeed a lot of gamers come from those places. I am curious why this is the case, since these three places are geographically separated and don’t seem to have much in common. Another interesting point the author made is that gold farmers typically experience being the “master” and the “servant” at the same time, since they could achieve a lot of things in the virtual world but also have to sell their achievements to wealthier gamers. In addition, their feeling of empowerment in the gaming world is contrasted with their likely lack of power and wealth in the real world, which could contribute their addiction to gaming and being employed as a “gold farmer.”

Chapter 6 of How the World Changes Social Media discusses the multifaceted relationships between social media and the economy. For instance, social media blends the work part of one’s life with the non-work part, as social media can be used for personal non-work communications during work time, and vice versa. Some social media, with LinkedIn as the best example, has greatly shaped the process of job finding as well as recruiting. In addition, social media companies themselves are important players in the society, since they can be powerful enough to alter how information gets created or distributed to the people.