Home> Archive> 2016> Volume 6 Number 5 (May 2016)
IJSSH 2016 Vol.6(5): 375-381 ISSN: 2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2016.V6.675

The Perks and Downsides of Being a Digital Prosumer: Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches to Digital Prosumption

Davide Dusi

Abstract—The recent evolution of users’ position and agency in digital environments absorbs the attention of several scholars in different fields of study. Users’ new ontological status as prosumers, simultaneously producers and consumers, and their role regarding productive paradigms has raised a lot of contrasting opinions. Different discursive techniques are employed to investigate production practices in digital worlds and are often crafted with the conventions of utopian and anti-utopian approaches. Nevertheless, the adoption of optimistic or pessimistic analytical and rhetorical strategies appears to be prejudiced towards the study of emerging online practices. In reality, the analysis of positive and negative approaches to productive paradigms in digital environments results in the detection of their limitations in reaching a comprehensive understanding of the investigated phenomena. Therefore, the adoption of a more neutral perspective is suggested, one that could potentially foster a holistic approach and therefore a broader and deeper comprehension of the analyzed phenomena.

Index Terms—Digital prosumption, ICT, productive paradigms, optimistic and pessimistic approaches.

D. Dusi is with the Centre for Social Theory of Ghent University, Belgium (e-mail: davide.dusi@ugent.be).

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Cite: Davide Dusi, " The Perks and Downsides of Being a Digital Prosumer: Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches to Digital Prosumption," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 375-381, 2016.

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