Uber, Deliveroo, and similar platforms scaled globally by classifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees, avoiding benefits and labor protections while offering flexible income opportunities. Algorithmic management replaced human supervisors, optimizing efficiency through opaque rating systems and dynamic pricing. Gig model epitomized neoliberal labor flexibility celebrated as entrepreneurship while masking insecurity and exploitation.

Precarity poets like Bhanu Kapil and Fred Moten theorized gig economy's affective tolls through fragmented forms mirroring algorithmic disruption of continuous experience. Delivery driver memoirs and ride-share confessions emerged as new subgenres documenting platform labor's embodied realities. Gig economy debates revived discussions about poetry's economic viability as adjunct teaching and freelance writing themselves became gig-like pursuits.