Non-economic Remuneration of Network User Labor

This chapter has studied the transformation of human production and consumption purposes in the context of continuously improving material living standards and increasing leisure timeLeisure time due to technological empowerment. Based on this, it has conducted an in-depth discussion on the new forms of remuneration—social capitalSocial capital, entertainment, and other non-economic rewardsNon-economic rewards—spawned by this background. The research has found that human needs are moving toward higher levels of respect and self-actualization, and the purposes of human production and consumption have shifted from the issues of food and clothing in agricultural societies, housing and transportation in industrial societies to the production and consumption of meaning. Therefore, the rewards for human labor have also broken through the framework of economic remuneration and expanded into the fields of material and symbolic rewards. Since the vast majority of Internet users are well-educated, have a lot of leisure timeLeisure time, and aspire to a life of self-fulfillment, they still compete to enter the cyberspace for labor despite suffering from severe economic exploitation. Their purpose is to obtain a series of non-economic rewardsNon-economic rewards, such as expanding social relationsSocial relations, enhancing social prestigeSocial prestige, engaging in social activities, and experiencing entertainment and emotional experiencesEmotional experience. However, the non-economic wealth created by Internet users is also exploited by network media, mainly because with their technological and capital advantages, network media can still obtain the non-economic wealth created by Internet users without compensation. This chapter is another in-depth discussion on the remuneration of network users’ labor, which plays an important role in revealing the mystery behind network users’ enthusiasm for labor.