Social media workers in the context of immaterial labor: Example of Facebook and Youtube

One of the new medium brought by the new media is social media mediums that arising from the widespread use of the Internet. Contents are produced on many topics and shared with other users in these mediums. With the principle of interaction, which is one of the basic principles of new media, users have also become producer. Social media users sometimes enter the social media for time-consuming and entertaining purposes and are in a value chain. The notion of immaterial labor, popularized by the work of Hardt and Negri, proposed by the Italian sociologist Maurizio Lazzarato, İt has been used to explain the fact that these users actually are transformed into a commodity marketed to others while consuming their use practices, and in fact, that the user spent a lot of labor, and that the non-material labor is exploited.This labor makes difficult to make clear definition of workers today. Besides, it is possible to be a user and a producer and make money on these sites. In this thesis, İt will be sought answers to these questions. How much time do Facebook and Youtube users spend on Facebook or on Youtube while they are away from work or during their work? Are they aware that they are in a value chain and that their use practices capitalize for someone? What are the working conditions of users who earn money from Youtube? Has the definition of worker changed? What can be said for the definition of workers of future? In order to realize this aim, a series of surveys will be applied to Facebook and Youtube users and it will be tried to conclude.