Commodification of Prison Life and #PrisonTikTok: Self-Exposure and Digital Labour on Social Media

This paper investigates the phenomenon of commodifying prison life through video content shared on social media, particularly on TikTok. This platform popularised the cultural trend of sharing prison-inspired video content via the #prisontiktok and #jailtok. Using these hashtags, prisoners and former prisoners expose their personal experiences to vast online audiences to establish social connections with the outside world. Simultaneously, they use social media to commodify their life in prison, as well as their criminal careers, to gain views, monetary gifts and sponsorships, which aids in resocialisation after incarceration. Using digital ethnography and narrative analysis, this study employs long-term online observation to explore how individuals utilise their prison experience to build post-penal identities and careers. The focus of the analysis are the textual, visual, and audio elements of the video content shared on TikTok. The study observes how viral dances and cooking videos, as well personal confessions all serve commercial purposes of self-advertising on the platform. By emphasizing the economic motivations behind constructing the narratives on prison life, this paper illuminates the precarious aspects of digital labour associated with resocialisation of prisoners. While acknowledging the benefits of transforming prison life into marketable content, this paper also discusses the challenges of online work, particularly with regards to self-exposure and limitations imposed by the algorithmic systems of social media. Ultimately, this paper aims to contribute to the broader conversation about digital labour in the context of resocialisations of former prisoners and representations of prisons on social media that stem from selfcommodification strategies.