Re:There's no avoiding Google+
by fennecfoxen on Wednesday January 02, 2013 @10:14PM
(#5000866)
Thousands of dollars' worth? Stretching it, I'd say.
Anyway. Yes. Personal responsibility... for not being cynical enough to realize that you never should have trusted the nefarious fiends like Google to begin with when you started using their services.
No, really though: when someone like Google lulls a bunch of people into thinking that they'll be doing one thing, and then do another, that's what the layman calls "bait and switch". (Go ahead, blame the victims.)
The economist would examine the system, question whether there was any tendency toward a natural monopoly because of network effects (possible but not certain), and point out that because there are high switching costs that the market for social media and like services doesn't really meet the prerequisites for being an efficient one (low transaction costs). The result is an inefficient market causing a deadweight loss to society, at least in the short to intermediate run... still nothing to celebrate in any event.
Anyway. Yes. Personal responsibility... for not being cynical enough to realize that you never should have trusted the nefarious fiends like Google to begin with when you started using their services.
No, really though: when someone like Google lulls a bunch of people into thinking that they'll be doing one thing, and then do another, that's what the layman calls "bait and switch". (Go ahead, blame the victims.)
The economist would examine the system, question whether there was any tendency toward a natural monopoly because of network effects (possible but not certain), and point out that because there are high switching costs that the market for social media and like services doesn't really meet the prerequisites for being an efficient one (low transaction costs). The result is an inefficient market causing a deadweight loss to society, at least in the short to intermediate run... still nothing to celebrate in any event.