When Engagement Becomes Work

When Engagement Becomes Work

A handful of coins can make a quiet room run very fast.
An I don't blame the people running.

I have been watching something lately.

People post. Comment. Like. Share. Then post again.

Nothing particularly unusual about that. That is what communities do.

I have done it for years.

I read something because it interested me.
I left a comment because I had something to say.
I clicked Like because… well, I liked it. 😏

Simple enough.

Add a little money to those same actions and something quietly changes.
Not necessarily the people.

The meaning of the movement.

A comment can still be a comment. It can also be a few points.
A post can still be something someone wanted to share. It can also become part of today's earnings.

A Like can mean I liked this.
Or perhaps: I need to keep moving.

And I don't blame anyone for that.
Quite the opposite.

For some of us, even a small amount of additional income matters.

If writing another post, leaving another comment or participating a little more helps, of course they will do it.
Wouldn't many of us?

And that is where I find myself becoming a little uncomfortable.
Because when engagement becomes currency, participation becomes work.

And when the reward for that work is small, you need more participation to earn the same little handful of coins.

More posts.
More comments.
More reactions.
More movement.

AI makes this even more interesting.

We can now write faster. Respond faster. Generate ideas faster.
Produce more. Perhaps considerably more.

Suddenly the little treadmill can run at extraordinary speed.

And from the outside, everything looks wonderful.

Look at all that engagement!
Look at all that content!
Look at everybody participating!

And I find myself wondering:

Are we measuring resonance… or movement?

They are not quite the same thing.

A room can be extremely busy without anyone really talking to anyone.
A platform can contain thousands of words without very much being said.
And a person can work very hard for surprisingly little.

That last one makes me sad.

Not because people are participating.
Not because people are earning.
And certainly not because someone chooses to use AI to help them.

Because incentives have a curious way of teaching us how to behave.

Nobody needs to tell us to run faster.

Put a scoreboard on the wall.
Scatter a few coins along the track.
We will figure out the rest ourselves.

Perhaps that is something worth noticing as more of our online spaces combine community, algorithms, AI, rankings and rewards.

Not " Who should we blame?
Rather "What behaviour are we rewarding?"

Because eventually, systems tend to get more of whatever they reward.

And people?
People adapt.
We always have.

So perhaps the question is not whether someone posted too much, commented too often, used AI, climbed a leaderboard or earned a few coins.

Perhaps the quieter question is different...
When does participation stop being participation… and start becoming labour?
And if it does— is the handful of coins worth the running?

😌 Fleeky

Thank you for your time, likes, comments and shares

My take… The em dash does a beautiful work here. And that is how it was used. Even in old manuscripts, long before typewriting existed.