The second major change concerned the working conditions under which new media professionals labored. Richard Florida’s influential The Rise of the Creative Class chronicled the increase in creative labor, “people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content.” New Economy rhetoric rejected the hierarchical, buttoned-down company or ga ni za tion of large, traditional business, which was derided as Dilbert-ish cubicle culture. Instead, dot-com companies were supposedly structured to indulge and reward skilled artisans by emphasizing self-actualization, creativity, and autonomy. Workers could wear what they wanted, show up at noon, play foosball and video games on break, pursue creative interests outside of work, freely voice their opinions and concerns, and collaborate with others in intellectually stimulating environments. Ross writes that “in such a workplace, the zeal of employees was more like a quest for personal and existential stimulation, closer in spirit to extreme sport or adventure travel than to the sobriety of the self-dependent man who saw himself as a pious and productive member of society.” Inculcating this passion in workers, particularly young workers willing to work sixty or even eighty hour weeks without overtime, was of course more advantageous to companies than to their employees.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 144