Research On Digital Labor Alienation

With the advent of the digital age,"digital labor" came into being,even replacing the previous wage labor and becoming the most important form of labor in the current society.Marx put forward the concept of "alienated labor" for the first time in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844,and used this concept to profoundly reveal the nature of laborers being exploited by capital under the progress of capitalist society.Then,in today’s digital age,has the phenomenon of alienated labor disappeared with the rapid rise of digital technology and the high development of productivity in digital society? Undoubtedly,the rise of digital technology can really help social development and human progress,but alienation and exploitation have not disappeared.Instead,the expression of alienation of digital labor is more concealed.Although digital workers seem to be free to surf the Internet and surf the Internet without time and space restrictions,in fact,when digital workers use the Internet or digital platforms and media products,what seems to be freedom is controlled by capital.Capitalists can still obtain surplus value from the data information produced by digital workers.Capital only skillfully controls digital workers in other ways,and alienation has not disappeared,even penetrated into our daily life.Therefore,it is necessary for us to return to Marxism,analyze the concrete manifestation of digital labor alienation based on Marx’s theory of alienated labor,deeply expose the real reason of digital labor alienation,and actively explore the liberation road of human beings in the digital age.Firstly,this thesis starts with sorting out the concept of digital labor.The concept of digital labor originated from the process of "blind spot dispute" to "audience goods" and then to "digital labor".At present,there is no consensus on the concept of digital labor in academic circles,mainly whether digital labor has materiality or exploitation.By revealing the essence of digital labor,we can see that although digital labor,as a new type of labor,presents new labor characteristics different from traditional industrial labor,and still belongs to the category of productive labor.On the surface,digital workers are not directly controlled by capital in the process of production,and seem to be free to decide when and where to use the Internet.However,digital media products used by digital workers can not get rid of capital control,and capitalists can still learn from the data information produced by digital workers.Secondly,this thesis discusses Marx’s theory of alienated labor,which lays a theoretical foundation for the study of digital labor alienation.Based on Marx’s alienated labor theory,this thesis sums up the four meanings of digital labor alienation,and expounds that digital labor alienation is consistent with traditional labor alienation,but the specific forms are different,which are embodied in three aspects: the alienation of the relationship between digital workers and their own subjectivity;Alienation of the relationship between digital workers and digital platforms;Alienation of the relationship between digital labor and digital social governance.Furthermore,according to Marx’s theory of alienated labor,it is profoundly revealed that the root of alienated digital labor is that the private ownership of digital capitalism has not changed,so digital labor is constantly involved in the logic of capital self-proliferation,capital gains more surplus value through exploitation of digital labor,realizes the new expansion of capital accumulation,and makes the alienated labor become more thorough and comprehensive.Finally,this thesis proposes that the sublation of the alienation of digital labor should start from the capitalist system itself,eliminate the social capitalist structure,and put forward a trial solution according to the performance of digital alienated labor,explore the new type of digital labor organization relationship,actively seek the subjective return of digital workers,and truly implement the dominant position of workers.