Page 36 - Issue-30-En

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 30, April 2021 Happy

Ramadan

Social media

"Prosumer platforms"

Yasmin Tarek ,4th Level, Economics

As the social web has expanded and tools such as Twitter, blogs, Prosumers Platforms
Facebook, and YouTube have made it possible for messages to Prosumerism had flourished with the introduction of Web 2.0
move quicker and further than ever before, people changed from which is portrayed as "crucial in the development of the
being CONsumers to PROsumers. 'means of prosumption' ". The use of Web 2.0 networks
For a long time now, the notion of prosumer has been around. It where prosumers consume and produce, has brought Toffler’s
started with the well-known theorist Karl Marx who somehow vision to reality by engendering the birth of the social
shed some light on the concept. Marx’s emphasis on the fact that customer, the embodiment of the prosumer, who uses social
production is a process involving four interrelated moments: networking sites as vital information resources for the sharing
production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. Thus, and consumption of product and brand information. The
production always and in all settings involves consumption, and growth of social media usage has created the ideal conditions
conversely, consumption always and in all settings involves to support the growth and expansion of prosumerism,
production. Then, Alvin Toffler first coined the concept of the therefore, social media has been thought of as “prosumer
proactive consumer known as the 'prosumer’ in his 1980 book, platforms”. Social media, in that sense, is described as "a
The Third Wave. The word is a hybrid model, which integrates group of Internet-based applications that build on Web 2.0's
two different binaries the producer and the consumer. ideological and technological foundations, which enables
Prosumer Meaning user- generated content to be created and exchanged."
A prosumer is an individual who both consumes and produces Furthermore, separate social media categories can be
media, data, or even commodities. Think of them as a consumer identified: collaborative projects such as Wikipedia, blogs,
who, in terms of both consumption and production, has a direct and microblogs such as Twitter, content communities such as
market impact. YouTube, social networking platforms such as Facebook.
To get the idea right, the two words that form the prosumer must Currently, social media users serve as prosumers who
first be understood. A producer is a company or organization or function as influencing agents (spread information about
individual who uses the resources available to produce material products and services) and are being (active) producers of
to allow other individuals to consume. Consumers are the people information on social networking platforms. In other words,
who purchase the manufacturers' services or products that have the social media users are not only consumers of digital
been produced. Until the broader spread of production information, but they are also the source- the producers- of
equipment, consumers used to have no real say in the products that information. As such, prosumers offer highly useful
and services that were produced and were unable to make any knowledge to internet sites such as Google, Facebook, and
sort of contribution to the manufacturing process, the only Amazon. Thus, businesses should pay for this information as
choice available was the preference of each customer, e.g. do well as the data brokerages that buy and sell such data.
they prefer Coke or Pepsi? Earlier, there was a clear distinction
between the producer and consumer, but in the digital era, there
are ‘blurred boundaries between them. This illustrates the weak
distinction between consumer and producer.

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