The central claim is this: when you scroll a social media feed, watch algorithmically recommended content, or interact with any digital interface that monitors your behavior, you are not merely consuming a free product. You are simultaneously producing a distinct economic output — behavioral data that serves as a critical input to AI training, targeted advertising, and algorithmic product development. This production is not compensated by wages. It is not recorded in any national accounting system. And its aggregate value may be large enough to reshape our understanding of the global economy.
The six hours and forty-seven minutes on my screen time report are not wasted time. They may be uncompensated labor. And the difference between those two interpretations has consequences that reach far beyond my Sunday morning guilt.
— Read on navvaidhyanathanatvysdomai.substack.com/p/dark-gdp-the-economics-of-entangled