Session 11

In Daniel Miller's How the World Changed Social Media, he discusses the dramatic change in the relationship between workplace and home with the development of social media and smartphones. During the industrial revolution employers tried to isolate the workplace from social and personal worlds. However, social media and smartphones broke down this isolation and has opened new ways to bridge the work world and personal world. However, there are both benefits and disadvantages to the integration of social media and smartphones into the work world. Some of the benefits including helping employees whose jobs might be boring stay amused during long shifts, providing larger companies the ability to create a feeling of familiarity with their consumers online and also providing employees with a way to stay connected with their families while at work. Social media has also influenced the ways in which people find work, such as with Linkedin, and enables new forms of entrepreneurship. In China, Italy and Turkey have developed new unique ways of integrating work with social media that are each distinctive to their local contexts. The manner in which social media was involved in commerce was dependent on how money and business was understood in each country. In the end, Miller came to the generalization that people associate social media with commerce mostly when the commerce is aligned with small-scale, personal and group communication.

In Markham and Buchanan's "Ethical Decision Making and Internet Research", discuss the key guiding principles for the ethics of internet research. These key principles include protecting the population being researched, making ethical decisions case by case rather than generalizing, balancing the rights of the subjects with the social benefits of research, and more. Ethical decisions are not simple and must be considered at every step of the process. Markham and Buchanan advocate a set of guidelines rather than a code of practice precisely because of complexity of ethical issues. There is never one set way to deal with any situation and instead decisions must be made individually within each situation. Three issues in internet research are defined by Markham and Buchanan: the concept of human subjects in relation to internet research and what level of ethical review is needed, the separation of public and private on the internet and the distinction of online data and persons. In addition to suggesting a case based approach to determining the specific needs of each case, the authors also created a list of questions designed to help internet researchers reflect on what ethical issues might arise in their studies.

Chinese Gold Farmers
Ge Jin's article discusses the development of "gold farms" in China where gamers are paid to create avatars that are then sold off to foreigners. Gold farmers often live in a dormitory and are provided meals though some gamers apparently are happy to work for free as long as they have a place to live and food to eat. This new "gold farms" are sometimes also referred to as "gaming sweatshops" because the gold farmers are a source of cheap labor being exploited by international brokers and farm owners. However, despite the long work hours and generally low pay, most gold farmers that Ge Jin talked to were happy with their job because they were better off than they were before and enjoyed being able to live off a hobby that they enjoyed. It also empowered them because they had finally found something that they were successful at. However, gamers tend to view gold farmers negatively as spoilers and intruders in the game world. Ge Jin states that in the game world the gold farmers are "Simultaneously 'the master' and the servant". I found this paradox fascinating as the gold farmers seem to feel so empowered by finally discovering a job that they are successful at while also being able to provide for themselves. At the same time though, despite their success in the game and ability to create such marketable avatars they are also "serving" people who are socioeconomically above them can thus simply buy avatars rather than putting in the time and effort to create them as the gold farmers and normal gamers are. I found this article really interesting because I recently learned of the magnitude and popularity of working in the gaming world. I personally know a professional yugioh player and I know a league of legends team coach. A league team coach is someone who is paid to coach professional teams so that they can play together better on the professional level. I had never even considered that such a job existed before I became friends who were very into league in college. I had also heard of the concept of creating avatars and selling them, however I had only heard of it on a more individual basis rather than an entire operation devoted to this niche market.