Are you willing to pay for access to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, etc.?
The Internet was founded on the premise that information should be freely available, which ironically turned out to be one of the Internet’s biggest drawbacks.
Only a decade ago, everyone was questioning how Facebook makes money. No one asks that anymore. We now know that “free” access to the Internet and social media platforms comes at a cost: Advertising and collecting your personal data.
The critical component of social media companies’ business models is to micro-target individuals with ads. This requires massive user surveillance and using engagement-juicing algorithms to keep users onsite as long as possible. Hence, the Internet we have today: An advertising-dominated digital landscape filled with misinformation and privacy concerns.
Yes, Internet access is free; however, the trade-off is that you are the product.
Social media companies make their money in the billions off your attention, eyeballs, clicks and, most of all, the information you voluntarily provide. (Statista estimates in 2023, US companies will spend over $94.4 billion on social media advertising.) Influencing beliefs, desires, and behaviours is lucrative.
Obviously, not all Internet content is free. A thriving pay-to-play market (aka. subscription services) for music, books, movies and television exists on the Internet.
Consumers are comfortable paying for access to the content I just mentioned. So here is the million-dollar question: Would consumers pay for Facebook-style social experiences or LinkedIn-style networking with professionals in their field and industry?
Two more questions:
- If we paid to access the Internet and social media, how would it change?
- Would paying to access the Internet and social media solve its problems?
I can see the marketing strategy: Tired of the online cesspool? You can access a clean social media version for a nominal fee.
Successful subscription models (e.g., Netflix, Bodyselfie TV, Amazon Prime, Scribd, Wall Street Journal) exist because subscribers feel they are getting something of value; access to films, games, news, TV series, books, or fitness instructors. With Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, etc., the “something of value” is largely intangible.
I will put aside the Internet’s privacy issue everyone claims to be concerned about since the solution is simple: Stop freely sharing your personal information. Instead, I will speak to the Internet’s and social media’s real danger: We have lost our collective cool.
Online, anger is cheap and can be expressed autonomously. Taking advantage of how easily we get angry and offended, social media companies, using algorithms we train when we use social media platforms, repeatedly immerses us in tribal indignation to increase our screen time. Perversely, our outrage has become valuable because it serves the interests of advertisers who keep the Internet and social media free.
An Internet truth: Every lie on the Internet serves someone’s purpose.
Next time you scroll through your social media feeds, envision yourself sitting in an algorithm-guided car, giving you a free ride through ad-filled digital landscapes. Imagine your car has learned which arguments push your hot buttons and presents them to you, enticing you to linger and engage.
If we paid for our social media presence, the outrage would cease to be cheap to us and valuable to social media companies. An additional benefit of paying to access social media is it would discourage trolls and malcontents since they would lose anonymity, which is what makes it easy to be a jerk online.
If you are wondering why social media companies are not working feverishly to make their platforms toxic-free: Ad revenue keeps them too well-fed to pursue alternative revenue streams seriously, such as charging their users.
Social media platforms are choosing to operate in ways that do not benefit our collective good but profit their business.
Would a pay-to-play social media structure affect user composition? Would social media become an extrovert’s playground if autonomy were gone? (I assume many anonymous social media accounts are created by “shy people.”)
Would a pay-to-play social media structure result in higher-quality content since users would be more invested?
Undeniably, the current state of social media has many people angry— namely, the rapid decline in civility. People are finally becoming aware that social media is destabilizing our mental health, fracturing our attention spans, and spreading misinformation globally.
Though it is impossible to say with certainty, I believe the Internet and social media would improve significantly if we had to pay for it; undeniably, it would be less toxic. On the other hand, would having to pay to access the Internet and social media turn many people away? Probably. However, I would argue that in a socially holistic sense, we would be better off spending less time online.
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Nick Kossovan is the Customer Service Professionals Network’s Social Media Director (Executive Board Member). Feel free to send your social media questions to nick.kossovan@gmail.com. On Twitter and Instagram, follow @NKossovan.
