Digital Labor in Middle and Old Age

• In Event: Disturbances, Recreation, and Renovation of Labor: AI, Robots, Platforms, and Algorithms - II

Abstract

It is generally believed that the advent of the digital age will exit middle-aged and elderly people who are unfamiliar with new technologies, lack of updated knowledge, and with poor learning ability. However, this study noticed a new phenomenon in contrast: "trendy" activities such as online marketing, video browsing, currency mining, digital reading with smartphones are now competing for the leisure time and attention of middle-aged and elderly people. As a theoretical tool for critical communication studies, "digital labor" is often used to analyze gamers, social media users, fan groups, self-media bloggers and other Internet users who are basically younger generation, revealing their "self-perceived in consumption, actually exploited" status in life and economic activity. Employing "digital labor" to investigate the online "micro-labor" behavior of middle-aged and elderly people could help to understand the path from digital divide to reproduction of social inequalities in an era of aging society and information technology diversification.
Based on follow-up observations of some middle-aged and elderly women in a county in southern China in 2018, this study initially summed up the following four characteristics of digital labor in middle and old age: (1) The acquaintances spread model based on relatives and older colleagues; (2) The use of ambiguous technical terms and trendy concepts; (3) Weak data literacy and (4) Strong emotional needs for social and catch-up with times. Further analysis shows that this pattern of division of labor is not based on age differences, but more on differences in knowledge, culture and social status.

Author

• Miao Liao, Changsha University of Science and Technology