The Playground - the future of platform capitalism

Eduardo Féteira; Raquel Gomes; Mafalda Rodrigues; Matilde Fernandes

doi:10.48619/uxuc.v3i1.495

Eduardo Féteira Communication Design/Interaction Design, Fine-Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Raquel Gomes Communication Design/Interaction Design, Fine-Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Mafalda Rodrigues Communication Design/Interaction Design, Fine-Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Matilde Fernandes Communication Design/Interaction Design, Fine-Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon, Portugal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48619/uxuc.v3i1.495

Keywords: AI, datamining, socialmedia

Abstract

The Playground is a project addressing the monetization of social media and the way in which these platforms use collected data to develop a selection process that studies and conditions its interviewees through technology to achieve its own independent gains.

The dystopic scenario takes place 5 years in the future when, after decades of data mining the most personal information about the lives of its users, the big tech companies united to create a new and exclusive social network platform called PLAYGROUND, that offers close contact and relationship building with higher status and income individuals. This alliance between Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon and Paypal becomes a self-feeding system that uses the individual databases of each older platforms to develop a multiple functionality and streamlined services platform.

This platform selects its users through an invite and interview-only process. The reason for this system is to ensure the approval of members that are active on the platform for which they will be compensated for according to their levels of engagement and quality of produced content. The critical moment will be the interview, conducted by an AI which will evaluate how much each candidate is worth to the platform – and to the exploitative goals of the AI and its parent companies. This AI is called MINDER.

The appeal of this platform is its exclusivity, the closeness and networking opportunities it provides to people of similar or higher social status and its social currency.

This platform thus becomes a trap for the collection and commercialization of further data, through the control and enhancement of user interaction through its patented technology, under the guise of an exclusive content-sharing platform, very similar to the way we currently interact with our devices and web platforms.