Forced Compliance
Many facets of modern life are beginning to be designed to require not only network connectivity, but also computer access.
We refer to this as "Forced Compliance."
Forced Compliance is a subset of what Fussel [1] describes (with regard to the self-adjusting baseball style cap) as being something that: demeans the buyer and user, making him do the work formerly thought the obligation of the seller, who used to have to stock numerous sizes. It's like such other (prole) features of the contemporary scene as the jet plane and the supermarket, where convenience for the seller is disguised by publicity and fraud to pass for the convenience for the buyer. [1:70] This has been described in great detail first by Toefler [2], who coined the term "Prosumer," and later by Rizer and Jurgenson [3] who further developed Toefler's notion as "Prosumption." Forced Compliance differs from Prosumption in that it is concerned primarily with the process and lack of choice for a labor task; the notion being that due to certain structures, people are forced to go online to complete processes vital to their livelihoods. With Prosumption, the choice upon the consumer whether or not to participate in the "labor process" is largely still available. With Forced Compliance, there is no choice or alternate to processes that are only available online and must be engaged with. Thus, Forced Compliance shares a foundation with Prosumption and the Prosumer, but differs in its lack of choice of experience for the individual. The only choice for the individual in having "forced labor" in Forced Compliance, is when (within a time frame) that people are required to complete this labor. Thus, they have some flexibility to do those processes asynchronously. It is the outcome from this lack of choice for labor for Forced Compliance that contributes, in part, to the adaption of asynchronicity. The unintended consequence of complications from the asynchronicity that is created from the various configurations that emerge from, in part, the multiplexed behavior within PolySocial Reality. This can only multiply with the growth of the smartphone market share.
1. Fussel, P. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System; Simon & Schuster Touchstone: New York, USA, 1983. 2. Toffler, A. Future Shock. William Morrow and Co: New York, USA, 1980. 3. Ritzer, G.; Jurgenson, N. Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital 'prosumer.' Journal of Consumer Culture 2010, 10(1), 13-36.
