Social networks and cultural workers: towards an archive for the prosumer

The cultural worker is a key figure in social networks, producing the vast amounts of data which are integral to the profits sites of sites such as Facebook. This paper develops a conceptual framework that accounts for the contradictory ways in which user-generated data both extends networks of connectivity, while simultaneously renders subjects more productive within our information economy. By theorizing the digital profile as a personal archive I want to account for the ways in which digital archives of users on-line straddle the fine line between extension and domination, or rather between a desire for connectivity and the accumulation of surplus value based on the immaterial labour of those who frequent these socially networked spaces. The archive as a conceptual framework offers a theoretical paradigm to grasp the impact social media is having on the everyday lived experiences of users participate on-line and who are ultimately rendered productive as a very specific manifestation of the cultural worker – the prosumer.