Seems Like It
In the era of social networking services (SNS), the commodification of expression has led to the instant creative phenomenon. This means that the ability to create things easily has become a commodity in the gig economy, where it is undervalued and exploited. This was pointed out by Takahiro Bessho in his note titled "Commodification of expression in the SNS era". A tweet by Baku 麦 (@_baku89) on February 26, 2021, further emphasizes this point. It suggests that the democratization of technology, where people pay fees to Adobe while engaging in crowdsourcing for graphic work, is a difficult situation. It implies that monthly tool rentals and the gig economy have created a situation where even margins for commissioned work are being taken away, similar to the transition from self-employed farmers to tenant farmers. In this case, the platform owners are like landlords. This phenomenon has been happening in the "illustrator" community for several years and is now spreading to various fields such as graphics, videos, and CGI. These observations highlight the commodification and instant creative trends in the gig economy, where the ability to create easily is undervalued and exploited, leading to a situation reminiscent of the transition from self-employed farmers to tenant farmers. Links: