A lot of people are not happy with how the internet is working presently, but they have to remember that a lot of the fault for poor quality lies with us. After all, we decided what thrived on it and what didn’t.

From the start, we have been demanding as much free stuff online as possible, and nothing in life is truly free. We wanted news and videos free, so we get ads along with them, even with some content that we have to pay for somewhere to get access to it, such as with commercial-free tiers or premium channels.

Magazines and newspapers aren’t a popular medium for advertisers though, so with free online content, they lose subscribers, along with revenue. The online ads don’t make up for it, but when they try to get people reading online to pay for the service, the people tend to disappear. This may be one reason the writing in magazines and newspapers is not as good as it once was.

Now, the data of people is valuable, and the companies want more profit, so they are using the data to get a bigger return on their long-term investment. I’m not saying the companies are angels by any means, but we have taken advantage of them in this realm for a long time, which is why, on top of data mining, companies are also using microtransactions to make a profit from something we refused to pay for in the beginning. Trust me–those $1 to $3 add up when you make a bunch of them in one bill cycle.

It is now trickling down into our physical world as well. For instance, games are trying to meet the demand by requiring internet and having a lot of DLC (downloadable content) to appease gamers’ cries for bigger and better games. Articles get continued online from print publications since we demand so much from them and give so little as they try to cut costs to stay profitable. Some even use extra features available only to those who subscribe.

For those who see how badly this can turn out, in the long run, we need to say to companies online that we are willing to pay for what they give us, but how much along with how often needs to be worked out.

In response, Companies need to be a bit more transparent with the online consumers so that what the consumers pay is fair. It is something that will possibly start to help with getting workers better pay, since companies will see we are willing to give them a fair price so they hopefully will ,in turn, pay workers better. Combined with other ways of changing how we use the internet and  how we spend, the future looks brighter already.

*Tips his hat and walks out the virtual door of his computer*