Despite Facebook appearing to be just a social networking site,
it in fact contains substantial advertising from a broad range of
organisations. As a user you can
purchase, exchange or sell goods to other users around the world – it is like
an online pawn shop. Clothes, shoes, makeup, games, cars just about any “real”
product can be purchased or sold on Facebook anywhere in the world. Whilst interacting
with your friends or stalking your boss, friends or that secret crush (admit
it, you have done it at least once!) you can still shop around for great
bargains.
Every page you or your friends ‘like’ expands the customer
range for corporations allowing their products to be viewed throughout the
world. You are participating in the virtual market of the third industrial
revolution (The Economist, 2012, p. 2) and with this demonstrating that consumers
now “have little difficulty in adapting to the new age of better products, swiftly
delivered” (The Economist, 2012, p.3). These are transnational companies, those
who control and coordinate production throughout the world (Dicken, 2007, p.437
– 438) and who have the power of a place able to change its products with the
global market (Wilkinson, 2013, n.p).
Not only can you spend all your money because of Facebook
but it can help
you to earn an income through self-employment. Roger Wilkinson
(2013, n.p) stated that the early department store allowed women to progress
into great long lasting careers with options of becoming a manager or higher.
Now, many new businesses have been created right out of peoples’ homes and are
growing into popular corporations due to the ability to advertise on a large somewhat
public run company, like Facebook. Facebook even has a program going in which
it is gathering data to support its claim that being the “largest social leadsto large world sales” (Reuters, 2013). Facebook moves the “real” store into the
virtual world and helps to combat the “rise in global inequality and vulnerability”
(Dicken, 2007, p.440) through creating jobs and allowing access to a variety of
products no matter where you live.
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But are you really a winner in this situation if you live in
a place without internet therefore no Facebook access? For Facebook to really
make a difference in combating unemployment and lack of access to a variety of
stuff then it must make itself more readily available to all because at the end
of the day who doesn’t like shopping?
References
The Economist. (2012). The
third industrial revolution. The digitisation of manufacturing will transform
the way goods are made – and change the politics of jobs too. Retrieved
from: http://www.economist.com/node/21553017/print
Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and losing: An introduction. In Dicken,
P, Global shift: Mapping the changing
contours of the world economy. (5th ed.). (pp. 437 – 453). London:
Sage Publications Ltd
Wilkinson, Roger. (2013). BA1002: Our space: Networks,
narratives and the making of place, Lecture 8: Stuff. [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Reuter. (2013). Facebook broadens effort to show ad payoff.
Retrieved from: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/9/20/technology/facebook-broadens-effort-show-ad-payoff
Image:
Constine, Josh (Artist). (2012) Facebook small business. [Image]. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/facebook-small-business-ads/
You may have heard the saying Bronwyn, that the more things change, the more they stay the same? Your evocation of the online shopping experience and the, let's say, observation, of certain individuals during that experience, brings forth to me a bustling market in medieval Europe, with all those things happening concurrently. "Oo er, look at the calves on Sir Roderick," I can almost hear you say, while switching your gaze to a fetching gwimple.
ReplyDeleteTrade and barter has been a staple of our local economies from the earliest of times and we often see provision of goods and services by small operators to fill gaps left in major commercial markets. Small operators after all were the foundation of commerce. Before the first industrial revolution and the establishment of major trade routes and mercantile companies that's all there was. It appears that with the advent of the third industrial revolution as cited by Kuttainen(2013, p.21)from an article in 'The Economist' digital technology is putting the means of production back into the hands of the people. Have we come full circle?
Reference List
Kuttainen,V.(2013). BA1002, Our space: networks, narratives and the making of place, week 8 notes. [PowerPoint]. Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au