The Persuasive Power of Free

In the Wired article, Chris Anderson states that "[f]rom the consumer's perspective... there is a huge difference between cheap and free....The psychology of "free" is powerful." This immediately made me think of those yellow coupons that H-E-B puts in the aisles next to products. The ones that say something like "buy a bag of salad and get a free bottle of salad dressing" coupons. I've definitely fallen victim to these coupons and bought those products just to get the free item, when in reality I don't need either item. So I definitely agree with Anderson that "free" is extremely persuasive.

Anderson goes on to explain free in terms of digital economics, which made me think of our society's addiction to social media. All major social media sites are free to use, but would we be so consumed with social media if we had to pay to use these channels? If that were the case, we would essentially be paying to talk to people, including our friends and family. We would be paying for digital affirmations via likes, favorites and retweets. We'd be paying to have virtual social interactions.

We allow ourselves to hop on these free channels for the price of our data. In a Huffington Post article, contributor Dragos Bratasanu writes "Facebook is free. But Facebook’s valuation is at more than $230 Billion. How can something that valuable be free? It’s simple. You think you are the Facebook user but in fact you are the Facebook product. The company sells you: your data and the advertising that you see."

Advertising has always been a major source of revenue for media companies, from television ads to print ads in newspapers. so the general public can reap the "free." But when that advertising is targeted and knows your personal preferences, personal searches and personal behaviors, is the persuasive power of free still alluring?