I had an amazing baader meinhof effect moment I was reading a academic paper about chamar netas for the BSP in UP in the early 2000s and they mentioned pass time. Well passtime comes up here.
anyhow this goes into how the large deluge of youth unempolyment has created a strange informal economy based around content creation which is supported by creating other jobs. its mostly bulit on hope. and there are market forces. I didint even realize that reels were like that important but apparently the reels was a big financial blow to a lot of smaller content creators who did longer form youtube videos.
But dont think these are just a bunch of stupid kids who want to get rich quick. What is found in the article is how they synergize. the guy who does his repairing job but also does youtube videos to market it. its in a rough economy a fascinating example of how a new sector of the informal economy is.
though something I do wish they explored more was
"India today has approximately 850 million internet users, four million of whom identify as creators or ‘influencers’. Even if only a fraction earn meaningfully, they generate demand for a wider chain of services turning content into a fragmented, gig-based industry. That chain, however, remains informal and fragile. There are no contracts, no fixed salaries, and no guarantees of continuity. Work flows with trends, followers and algorithms."
this feels ripe for abuse and I wish they had explored that more.
this is probably my last post until Wednesday I have to study a bunch for stuff and im gonna have to self ban. but this is fascinating
Posted by ewatta200