The structure of inequality has persisted across centuries, even as the tools, language, and forms of power have evolved. Where once the lower class was defined by calloused hands, long shifts, and visible supervision in factories or mines, today it exists behind glowing screens and endless scrolling. The defining traits of the lower class have shifted from physical toil to digital engagement, yet the logic remains the same: value is extracted while control remains concentrated at the top. The mechanisms have adapted to the modern world, and the lower class has learned to scroll.
In the industrial era, factory workers, miners, and domestic labourers constituted the proletariat, as Karl Marx described. They lacked land, capital, or machinery and were compelled to sell their labour to survive. Their lives were marked by strict discipline, physical surveillance, replaceability, and exhaustion. Exploitation was visible in the smoke-filled rooms and broken bodies, making power easy to observe and comprehend. Today, however, visibility has diminished while the underlying structure remains intact. Modern digital workers produce continuous value through attention and engagement without owning platforms, controlling algorithms, or sharing in the wealth generated from the data they provide.
Economists and sociologists have long predicted the rise of attention as a critical resource. Herbert Simon, in 1971, noted that in an information-driven world, attention would become scarce, and contemporary digital platforms confirm this prediction. Social media users spend hours daily on platforms that monetise their behaviour, effectively creating a form of labour disguised as leisure. Meta generated over $130 billion in advertising revenue in 2023, almost entirely from user attention. Platforms like TikTok engage users multiple times per day, capturing data that fuels algorithms and advertising revenue. This phenomenon, described by Christian Fuchs as ‘digital labour’ and by Shoshana Zuboff as ‘behavioural extraction,’ demonstrates that exploitation continues in new forms, now extending into psychological and emotional spaces.
Control and replaceability have adapted to the digital context. Physical supervision has been replaced by algorithmic monitoring, social validation loops, and engagement-driven design. YouTube, for instance, directs over 70% of watch time through algorithmic recommendations, while misinformation spreads faster due to engagement optimization. Users are regulated by dopamine-driven interactions, with account bans, algorithmic shifts, and policy updates capable of erasing years of effort. This system reflects a form of digital feudalism: users cultivate value on platforms they do not own, governed by rules they cannot influence, and enforced through systems outside their control. The lower class of the digital era produces immense value, yet its labour remains invisible, unpaid, and tightly monitored through mechanisms that are pervasive and subtle.
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