[Air-L] Question: Likeconomy and the [digital] verbing of nouns

[Ravindra N. Mohabeer]

Hi,

I know this area has received attention in print which I will be reading in the coming weeks but I have a question, mostly out of curiosity.

Last night as I couldn't sleep I wondered about the verbing of nouns that is so much more common these days - e.g. googling, friending, trending, etc. - and also about what I imagine must be called the 'like-economy' which in my mind contracts to the likeconomy.

While this has happened at other times historically I wondered whether there isn't a passivity inherent in this verbing, or making an object into an action, that has implications both for our understanding of and outcomes associated with the digitality of the current collective mind? Does making say google into an action defer the underlaying energy to the algorithms that were discussed on this list this week, or does trending suggest that the wave or flow of popularity makes something important whether or not that momentum is built of clever psychological prodding or actual will to action (curiosity rather than interest like Gustov Le Bon's psychic contagion)? 

I'm not really sure if this makes sense but it is a question that I wonder if anyone can help me make sense of so I can know where to start my reading.

Please and thank you,
Ravi
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Ravindra N. Mohabeer, PhD
Media Studies
Vancouver Island University
Nanaimo, BC  CANADA
V9T 5S5
ravindra.mohabeer at viu.ca
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