The Endless Internship - with Kathleen Kuehn

If asked, most of us would say that when we post about our lives on social media for fun, right? Whether individual or business, we’re constantly crafting fragments of content that we feel is in a good enough place to share with an audience - whether that audience is made up of friends or thousands of strangers.

But all of this crafting - is definitely a lot of work, especially if you are creating content online with an end goal, dream or hopeful vision in mind. This uncertain, inarticulable dream was definitely the reason I committed to leveraging social media when I was running Monday Hustle - and as you’ll hear in this episode, I’m still conflicted about whether on the balance, that three years of labour was a good, bad, neutral or, like most decisions in life, an infinitely complex thing.

Today, we’re speaking with Kathleen Kuehn, a senior lecturer of media studies at Victoria University in Wellington. Kathleen’s teaching and research focuses broadly on digital privacy, surveillance culture and issues around labour and consumer culture.

Today, Kathleen and I speak about systems of power, authenticity, her current research and a term she coined called ‘Hope Labour’, which is the idea that if we put the work in now - eg, if we commit to crafting a brand online - then one day, that labour will pay off in terms of financial capital. But is hope labour really all that fun?

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Shownotes:

Check out Kathleen's profile on the Vic Uni website, or her personal website here. Also - surprise! - Kathleen is a yoga instructor, so if you wanna get bendy with this incredible academic, find out more on this page.