When I play 'video ads' on my smartphone during a company meeting to earn 0.5 yen, I realize that I have fallen from a 'human' to 'livestock on a click farm'

Tuesday, November 25th.
In the middle of a boring routine meeting, I was secretly working on my 'side hustle' under my desk.

That said, it's not day trading stocks or some high-minded skill-sharing.
I play '30-second video ads' on a smartphone app and receive '1 point (equivalent to 0.1 yen)' as a reward.
It's what's known as 'poi-katsu' (point-earning activities).

On the screen, commercials for detergents that clean impossibly well or shady side-hustle apps are playing.
I don't watch them. I don't even turn on the sound.
I just keep tapping my smartphone solely to create the established fact that I 'played' them.

Suddenly, I calmed down and tried to calculate it.
My hourly wage for my main job is about 2,500 yen. That's about 0.7 yen per second.
On the other hand, this point-earning activity takes 30 seconds to earn 0.1 yen.
In terms of economic rationality, it's a complete failure. It's madness.

And yet, why am I desperately picking up 0.1 yen while pretending to listen to the department manager (quiet quitting)?

It must be because the quality of 'labor' in modern society has changed.

No matter how hard you work at a company, you don't see results immediately. The numbers deposited on payday are reduced by taxes and shrink every month.
However, point-earning is different.
If you tap, the numbers increase with a 'cha-ching' sound immediately.
My brain cannot resist the stimulation of this 'certain reward system'.

But when I look at this structure from a bird's-eye view, I arrive at a chilling fact.

I slack off at my main job and sell the saved resources (my attention) to advertisers.
Aren't we just becoming livestock on a 'click farm' run by giant IT companies, while thinking we've become 'free'?
They give us cheap feed called 'points,' and in exchange, we have our milk—our 'viewing data'—milked from us.

'...Uh, so, moving on to the next agenda item.'

I was pulled back to reality by the manager's voice.
On the smartphone screen, the words 'Reward Earned!' appeared.
Got 0.1 yen.
I gave a small fist pump.

Escaping from the old cage of the company only to enter a new cage of algorithms.
This is the front line of the 'survival strategy' that Reiwa-era salarymen have arrived at.

By the time the meeting ended, I had earned about 5 yen.
That 5 yen, which isn't even enough to buy a single Umaibo snack, felt more like a real 'reward for labor' than this month's pay stub.

Point-earning, we all end up doing it, don't we?
They say that even dust, if piled up, becomes a mountain, but sometimes I can't tell if what's piling up is 'small change' or 'emptiness'.

But as a way to kill time during a meeting, it might be more productive than Solitaire.
Let's keep tapping away tonight, too.

※Wouldn't you get fired if they actually found out you were doing this?
#Column #Essay #PoiKatsu #QuietQuitting #WorkStyle #ModernSociety #DigitalTenantFarmer #SideHustle