This is an excerpt of a Lecture I presented to a group on "Pan African and Caribbean Thought," exploring the "Corner Boys" Mentality; within a Gen-Z's, Gen-X's and Post Millennial's Milieu. It is an interdisciplinary analysis utilizing anthropological/ethnographic methods and Participant observation.
The discussions forms part of a wider study on "Privilege, Power, Position and Status, looking at how power and its strategies poses problems for progress and its effect on the changing human dynamics in society which.
The analysis provides an anecdotal and an initial understanding on the minds and behaviors of the Gen-Z's corner boys who seem to have acquired the one percent mindset of "getting money...staying fresh" without having the usual hard commitment to wider society's values and morals to hold them back. It's all about "getting money" - living the dream; the systems and laws are beneath them and can be summed up in this motto: "the law is not a shackle".
I provide an initial analysis and assessment to my students and also made a comment at the end about Twitter and Elon Musk who have slashed their staff in half since the Elon takeover after requiring them to work hours thinking that they would be able to keep their jobs, (which seemed to have been a strategy to get the staff to do one year's work in two weeks so that the layoffs wouldn't cost them anymore losses), is now charging $8/month to get and to keep a blue verified account. This seems draconian and based on members ability to pay, not on members credibility and reputation which Elon Musk had tweeted was based on privilege. Nevertheless, Elon and Twitter have turned around and is doing the same thing, only this time, they have changed the game and switch privileges from those who are reputable to anyone who can pay.
Finally, we concluded with a brief discussion on Facebook and Meta which has defrauded many Digital Creators out of their Reels after promising that they would pay these members for their created and posted Reels. Many Video Reel Creators suddenly started to experience glitches with their accounts and lost access to their accounts and payments and then were required to reverify their accounts through notary and other requirements or create new accounts. But up to now, many Creators have not been paid and Facebook and Meta have not provided any public and substantial reply concerning the issue. However, they are slashing staff due to business slowdowns.
But business is bad for Meta because the platform is not user-friendly and has tremendous control over user accounts. Further, Meta has several security issues and kinks that need to be resolved and members continue to complain that they are not paid for their reels and pay out accounts are constantly coming up with error notifications. So, it is no wonder that Facebook/Meta has to cut staff given the downturn in revenues as the company continues to lose reputational value among its Facebook fans.
Renaldo McKenzie is the Creator/Host of The Neoliberal Round Podcast, Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University, Graduated from University of Pennsylvania and is an Academic and Lecturer and has taught at The Jamaica Theological Seminary and several other colleges and schools. Renaldo is the author of Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance is about to get his second book published: Neoliberal Globalization Reconsidered....
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