Smartphones under communicative capitalism function as workplace tools, not luxury goods

Evidence

Communicative capitalism is not about the production of material objects, but the ceaseless circulation of messages. The “content” in this culture comes from users themselves; hence paying for an interface into the communicative matrix is more like paying for one’s own tools at work than it is like buying a luxury good. The very distinction between work and non-work, between entertainment and labour, erodes. There are no office hours, no clocking off. In addition to ensuring that we are always connected to the communicative matrix, smartphones are tethering devices which allow employers to call short-term workers into work at a moment’s notice. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1592

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Jodi Dean’s ‘communicative capitalism’ through what it does to the work/leisure boundary.
• XREF: Echoes from earlier books: ‘Digital communication compulsion operates as death drive’ and ‘the very distinction between work and non-work erodes’. — connects to: The smartphone operates as devotional object of digital servitude — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 41; Technology’s cultural effects are mediated by late capitalism not deterministically — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 410; Digital capitalism profits from unpaid pleasurable user activity. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 197 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Digital capitalism profits from unpaid pleasurable user activity. #expands (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 197
• Technology’s cultural effects are mediated by late capitalism not deterministically #expands (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 410
• Ubiquitous smartphones drained tech of its status and coolness #corroborates (0.75)