Free....dom

 Anderson and Ariely (I'll cite him like JC) both make great points of how "free" goods and services do wonders to our psyches. Ariely conducts a number of informal tests in his book Predictably Irrational, showing that peoples' tastes change dramatically when products go from free to $.01. An actual price becomes a barrier to purchasing that good. I think the increasing adoption of subscription services challenges this idea. Once people purchase a Netflix or Hulu subscription, they'll often put these subscription services on auto-pay. I wonder how much we begin assuming, over time, that the content we're getting from these services is effectively free. The value proposition is far greater than a cable subscription, at about $10 for thousands of shows and films. It's the cost of a single meal at Chipotle. I don't use Netflix nearly as much as most people I know, but I view it as a public utility rather than something I pay for. I wonder if "cheap" could start feeling more like "free?"


I used to agree with Clay Shirky's idea that we should give our content away for free in the short term in order to build a a fanbase. However, I think we (scholars, and well all of society), need to take a much closer look at the actual benefits to society of all of us creating more content. Sure, if I was to produce a tutorial video series, it could benefit Hyeri JUNG, but am I also creating a treasure trove of data for advertisers to learn more about me? And in a sense, give them more opportunities to target me, and take my disposable income with purchases I perhaps do not need? Also, I think we need to be weary of the fact that, much of the power we as consumer-producers have to distribute our free content rests in the hands of a few large corporations. I am not saying everything is inherently bad or good, but free comes with a lot of considerations. I think society needs to better understand how much free stuff takes away from our freedom.