It seems to me, if you want to talk to someone, you’ve got to pay for it.
The recent news on Twitter (which I do not use) to tell users to pay a monthly charge to use the application caught my eye. https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-twitter-will-charge-8-blue-tick-2022-11-01/
Since the “social media” proposition is to communicate, giving your opinions and thoughts to strangers without picking up the phone, has always been a draw. All the software had to be compatible with whatever operating system and hardware is available and there were ‘terms and conditions’ for the applicant to agree to, but it was FREE!
‘Facebook’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Wikipedia’, ‘Google’, ‘Yahoo’… all FREE!
Other than messenger or e-mail (which were also FREE!) there were programs defining groups who wanted to communicate person-to-person for romance, politics, religion, recipes, travel, and sports…
Some of these had fees, payments, subscriptions, and donations to pay for what advertising couldn’t cover. Sounds like newspapers?
So now the ‘new’ Twitter wants to charge a user a monthly fee to verify they are who they logged on with a secure password and a agreement to terms and conditions, to be.
We do pay for face-to-face communication. We gather at a dining establishment to eat and drink and converse. We tithe at our houses of worship to partake in social conversation of like beliefs. We pay our dues just to have a partner to share breakfast with.
So maybe we should be charged to have a talk?
Most of us are fairly boring and don’t have many new ideas to offer so the fee could be miniscule. Don’t know who or how a rating could be formulated if after a few minutes of shooting the breeze no interesting topics were discussed.
Then again some quiet whispers on a lonely grass knoll or total laser focused engagement in a noisy bar can be priceless.
How much would I pay for your time?
No comments:
Post a Comment