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About ZuckBucks
ZuckBucks is an interactive Chrome extension and conceptual artwork that exposes the hidden flows of value in modern social media platforms. Every post, like, or comment we make generates revenue — not for us, but for the corporate entity behind the platform and, more pointedly, for its executives. Through a playful, retro interface, ZuckBucks translates the intangible labor of our attention and content into a tangible monetary figure, showing exactly how much money flows into Zuckerberg’s pocket from the everyday posting of millions of users to Facebook and / or Instagram.
The project critiques the modern attention economy, where user-generated content serves as unpaid labor for a corporation that monetizes it through advertising, targeted engagement, and data extraction. By rendering this invisible labor visible, ZuckBucks underscores the disproportionate accumulation of wealth at the top, revealing the stark asymmetry between the effort of the crowd and the profits of a single individual.
Beyond visualization, ZuckBucks functions as a mirror for social media users, highlighting the systemic structures that turn our online activity into a revenue stream for corporate elites. It invites reflection on the ethics of digital labor, the commodification of personal expression, and the broader implications of a platform economy that thrives on unpaid, crowdsourced work. By quantifying the “cost” of our attention, ZuckBucks transforms everyday interactions into a lens for understanding corporate greed in the 21st century.
