Emotional Digital Labor Among Young People Within the Context of Lumpencybertariat

Abstract

Türkiye ranks among the countries with the highest rates of social media usage. Especially among the young population, the prevalence of social media usage reaches the highest rates. This article focuses on the formation of hate within the cultural production processes on social media among young population. The monopolization of social media platforms fosters an economic logic where hateful interactions gain exchange value within algorithmic distribution systems. The online activities of social media users are at risk of being drawn into a “discursive spiral of hate”. Algorithms direct social media activities towards emotional escalation and transform online interactions into the “emotional digital labor”. Thus, the digital cultural production is tended to be dominated by the “lumpencybertariat”. This lumpenization process poses a direct risk to young social media users. This article aims to outline the conceptual framework of the position of lumpencybertariat as the producer of emotional digital labor in the digital capitalism. The possibility of “emotional sustainability” as a potential tool to counter the risk of lumpenization in digital cultural production is discussed.