Why Does Free Internet Mean “Exploitation?”

It goes without saying that most people of content and offerings on the internet are absolutely loose for users: e-mail, social networks, information portals… Yet have you ever notion ‘why’? Maybe you pay free of charge net content material a remarkable deal greater than you can consider?

The phantasm of “loose.”
My Update Web

Facebook, Google, information website – this is a simplified model of maximum net users’ regular itinerary. This route is completely unfastened and definitely safe: you circulate from one vacation spot to every other nearly automatically. But what could happen if at some point you visited your preferred (unfastened!) information portal and found out which you have been couldn’t examine a single article. Instead, you’ll be asked to pay if you need to get right to entry to the substances.

Your exceptional stroll might honestly be spoiled. “Why, for God’s sake, do I must pay for it?” – many customers would exclaim. “Why can I use Google or Facebook absolutely loose? Who do the editors suppose they’re, asking me for cash?” Many human beings suppose that folks who paintings in such big companies, like Google or Facebook, are passionately committed and enthusiastic volunteers, who ordinary sacrifice themselves within the call of “the consumer-oriented net.” Well, numbers talk louder than words: in 2014, the yearly Facebook’s profit becomes 12 billion greenbacks, Google – even greater, sixty-six billion greenbacks. Do you still agree with the “person-oriented internet” undertaking?

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Our news portals can barely consider such sums. “Not my troubles, sorry” – a regular, delivered up with the aid of the miracles of the loose internet user could country. “The truth that there are those who read their portal is already a big fulfillment for them.” Such common sense proves that users do not now realize that they are worried about the procedure of capital accumulation – and in this “game,” their role is without a doubt unenviable. As a dependent on reality, the internet isn’t an area where all and sundry are identical. However, a hierarchical pyramid ruled via those at the top.

The Internet Pyramid

The examples of Google and Facebook (there are a lot extra of them) are the examples of “those at the pinnacle.” They create the phantasm of “free.” “So, what is wrong with it?” – one greater viable question.

Paradoxically may or not it’s, however, the root of the problem is nothing, however, the truth that the whole thing is (in the beginning sight) loose.

To prove to yourself that “the whole thing is free” is a mere illusion, you can marvel at how come those “free” offerings get a lot of money. The rule is simple: in case you do no longer pay, any person else does. This any person isn’t always a generous daddy, prepared to pay his closing cent, so you ought to scroll through your information feed on Facebook or locate wherein to spend your night on Google. This anyone is… Marketing.

To clean it up, if the websites dictate the polipyramid’s pinnacle of the pyramid, advertising and marketing is its proprietor who creates these guidelines. Were you seeking out the location to have dinner? Awesome! Google will offer you a bunch of romantic venues, so you might positive to locate what you had been searching out. Is that everyone? Sure it isn’t: the following time you will be scrolling through your news feed, you may (marvel-wonder!) stumble into the snapshots of the place you’ve got visited, sending you pretty a linear message: visit us. Again! Alternatively, you can see the pictures of other locations, implying that it’s miles excessive time you went somewhere out. It is the first lure of “the phantasm of unfastened” – you are tracked, and your non-public facts are used without your permission.

The 2nd lure is even greater dangerous – in all likelihood, you do not even recognize that. Still, you’re a manner to provide capital for websites positioned at the pinnacle of the pyramid. Yes, no person pays you for that. The stolen facts are used to scouse borrow your attention – and it is advertising that does it. Ads are everywhere: on your private page, for your information feed, in SERPs, even on your e-mail – no person warned you about it, and no one asked whether you allow applying your non-public details for such purposes. Google and Facebook made this decision on your behalf and behalf of hundreds of thousands of other people: well, men, we offer our services at no cost; we neglect your attention and get our billions for that. As simple as ABC.

Just use the services Google, Facebook, and others offer you free of charge. But is it fair?

How the target audience is transformed into visitors

The mechanism of exploitation on information websites is even extra uncanny. If earlier than the net changed into a promise of the platform where anybody is equal, all and sundry can specific their opinion (and would absolutely be heard), where neighborhood and global issues are solved cooperatively, and on hand to everyone media foster civil society, today, as so much time has exceeded, this handiest places a sad smile on our faces. All of the referred to desires could be done simplest because a human being could be reputable. From the very second you open the information portal, you are not an individual anymore – you become a part of visitors.

Why Does Free Internet Mean "Exploitation?" 1

“But is it so? I can comment, argue with others, subsequently, I can stop touring this web page!” – one may argue. It is true, however, lamentably, your opinion and arguments you offer are not any massive deal: within the existing system, you’re both 1 or zero – either you are, otherwise you are not. This is one extra entice of “the illusion of loose” – the phantasm of participation. You are not anything but 1 – and there are masses of such 1s. You are neither a purchaser nor a person; you’re in no way right nor are you wrong; you’re only a parent, a part of site visitors. And yes, to procure it right: your preferred news portal normally sells you to advertisers stealing your attention.

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Troublemaker. Wannabe music fanatic. Beer aficionado. Devoted food junkie. Twitter fan. Freelance thinker.Won several awards for analyzing sheep in Cuba. Spent 2002-2009 promoting action figures in the UK. What gets me going now is getting to know pond scum in the UK. Won several awards for investing in toy soldiers on the black market. Spent several months getting my feet wet with spit-takes in Gainesville, FL. Spent 2002-2009 testing the market for tobacco in the aftermarket.