The agency of digital platforms: A value-based approach

Abstract

Introduction. A lack of current approaches to the study of digital platforms is ignoring the internal logic of their functioning, which determines their social agency, as well as the value foundations of this agency. The aim of this work is a socio-philosophical analysis of the agency of digital platforms through the lens of the value approach. Theoretical analysis. Specificity of social reality of platforms is their dependence on the generation of content by users, so the main value for platforms is users’ productivity, and the content of platforms’ agency is keeping users in the role of content producers. To realize this value, platforms’ agency is manifested in a narrativization strategy that focuses on keeping users as “storytellers” as stories are the most successfully consumed content, with short-term storytelling and live-action mechanisms providing additional value to content. In the long term, this strategy transforms the notion of sociality, which comes down to narrative productivity, with the ultimate goal of generating material for artificial intelligence training, the goal of which could be to create a metanarrative that reveals the value of each individual user’s productivity. Conclusion. Today, the agency of platforms is manifested in understanding sociality as narrative productivity, which provides, firstly, the maintenance of the business model of platforms and, secondly, the creation of sufficient data for learning promising artificial intelligence systems.