He said
The Internet is a crazy place. It's a virtual world that houses anything and everything. If it's not on the Internet, it simply doesn't exist.
Because it is so vast, there are two ways you can get everything on the Internet: you can pay for it, or you can get it for free. We aren't here to get into the ethical questions of what should be paid for and what should be free, but ask whether paid services or free services are the way to go.
Facebook and other social networking sites are free. There's no monthly subscription to Twitter. Google is the master of providing great services online with no expense handed on to the consumer. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
These companies store an incredible amount of information about you. You are essentially a customer to Facebook, though you don't give them a dime. That means in the relationship between you and this Internet service, they give and you take. The problem with this kind of relationship is that nobody wants to just give and give and keep on giving without getting something in return.
Google and Facebook make all of their money off advertising, which only pays them because they have so many customers, but they still aren't making money directly from their customers. There isn't much loyalty there.
These companies are known to be a little loose with the personal information they store. You don't like that your information is being sent out to the advertisers? Well, without a dollar put toward that service, you don't have much of a voice. It's like people who don't vote; they can't complain. The advertisers pay the corporation, so if they want something back, they'll get it.
Other sites, like the music site Spotify, which isn't available yet in Canada, offer both free and subscription services. The free service is nice, but minimal, while the paid service includes perks like access even when offline. With the paid for service, you know you're getting a superior product and one that has some kind of accountability.
News sites are moving over to pay services, and if that becomes universal, consumers will have the choice to pay for news or risk being badly misinformed via some free news service.
Free things are great, but when you pay a couple of dollars for these services you should be able to expect some sort of guarantee.
She said
Paying for stuff online is garbage. And by "stuff" I mean "social media services" and by "garbage" I mean "I'm not going to do it."
Social media wouldn't be nearly as popular if it cost money. I'm positive that I would never have joined Facebook had I been introduced to it as "the ultimate way to stalk people online, for only $14.99 a month." Somehow, putting a price on Facebook creeping makes it that much less appealing and much more of a felony and invasion of privacy.
It's not like the owners of social media sites aren't making bank off our hours logged tweeting and creeping. Businesses opt to advertise on these sites, earning the social media owners all sorts of cash. Sure, users' personal information has the risk of being abused by these advertisers, but somehow one's identity seems like a small price to pay when you're lying in bed reading every tweet ever posted by your favourite singer without paying any sort of a subscription or membership fee.
Plus sometimes the advertisements are convenient. A local Estevan girl found an advertisement for a beauty pageant on Facebook, and that was a life-changing experience for her. I've clicked on links for online clothing shops that I've never regretted visiting. It's kind of like seeing a commercial on TV for a new brand of makeup, and rather than having to get your laptop out to search it, you can click the link right there and check it out. So advertising to make sure my social networking is free is OK with me.
I get that there are instances when paying for services is appropriate. Music, for one, is a service that I'm totally OK with paying for. When my favourite artists release a new CD, nine times out of 10 I'm going to buy it on iTunes. Sure, I'll sometimes pirate a couple of singles or maybe a handful of classics, but I usually find that throwing away a dollar on an awesome song is worth it. That money keeps my favourite artists in business, as far as I'm concerned. There's also the fact that songs bought on iTunes sync so nicely and easily with my iPhone, and already have the cover artwork entered. And I am nothing if not grouchy when all the songs in my iTunes don't have their cover artwork.
