You’re argument is flawed. The fact that nobody would cancel their accounts when you told them to does not mean that they were liars. It means that they haven’t been charged for facebook usage yet…

I don’t think that any of you understand the point of facebook. Kids like it because the emphasis wasn’t on adults, and payment was never a factor when it was created. It was a place where you could exist without your parents, without the economy, without trouble.

That iss why people left myspace, and that is where facebook is going now, and that is why it is having economic troubles.

I believe it is patriotic of them to act as such. If you remember the times leading up to the revolution, taxes were being imposed on the colonists where there had been none before.

In this day and age of electronics, a 10 year old can make a website. I’m a junior in college, majoring in Aerospace Engineering, and I guarantee you that I could make an alternative to facebook in a month. The source code is out there, its not that hard.

The push in IT is towards FREE. Google has an entire suite of free apps, open office and ubuntu are completely free. why shouldnt facebook be the same?

Look again at the last two kids’ comments on Benton’s blog:

“It’s easier to find stuff on iTunes, and you get the album art.”
— “There was an EP from a band I liked that was only on iTunes.”

So while they’d sooner have it for free they’ll pay if it’s exclusive, or the best.

It’s always been that way.

[...] interesting article on Nieman Journalism Lab also highlights the fact that young people spend hours upon hours on social networking sites such as [...]

Thus, it only exists because it is free and convenient. But, because it is a totally unnecessary in making connections, and this generation understands that, it ceasing to exists or the equivalent via charging would not phase them one bit.

And I use the term necessary because this generation has a very narrow definition of necessary. This generation was raised to believe that to prevent the world from destroying itself, they would have to sacrifice a lot of things that older generations take for granted as necessities. As they age into adults, they are living a lot more streamlined lives than older generations.

Raised to work as teams, they don’t see a necessity for privacy. Raised with collective mentality, they don’t see a necessity for getting their own place. And, living with instant communication via numerous avenues, they don’t see the necessity for paying for information. Landlines are a thing of the past and TV is a dying breed, so, why should traditional newspapers have a hope.

Not burdened with the older generations rigid concepts of what is necessary, and with the usual vitality of youth, they are much more flexible and adaptable. Thus, they are very confident that they can either create it themselves via other avenues or survive without.

Unnecessary convenience.

We just wrote about this on our blog http://www.unionroom.com/blog/would-you-pay-to-use-facebook/

[...] kids won’t pay Here’s an interesting piece by Joshua Benton who discovered to his surprise that teens who practically live on Facebook, who [...]

[...] A furrow-brow kids-these-dayser post: “If they won’t pay for Facebook, they won’t pay for a City Hall reporter.” [...]

I’m 33 and have used facebook since 2005 (I went back to college then). It was free and was a great tool for communicating with my fellow classmates (it was only college students using it then I believe). Over the last year or two, there has been an explosion in the number of people using FB, and it is still free. It’s been great getting to talk to old friends I haven’t talked to since graduating high school in 94. But if FB were to charge, I wouldn’t pay.

Imagine for a minute that you were to eat at a restaurant every day for 4 years free of charge. Then one day you walk in and have to pay. Well, for me, I wouldn’t pay because I could just go buy the food myself and cook it. I rarely ever go out to eat because I can cook better and healthier than most restaurants…and the ones that do cook better than me are way too expensive for me to spend on a regular basis.

Even though people do pay to go out to eat, there is something about suddenly not being able to eat for free at this one place that has ALWAYS been free. I know people who don’t eat in a restaurant when they raise prices…simply because they were keeping up with inflation! So suddenly charging for something that was previously free is a tough hurdle to get over.

Not to mention that with FB, if they started charging there would be other sites that would start (not to mention current sites that are still free) that people would go to. Many of my friends belong to other sites already as well.

Also bear in mind that long before FB came along, there was classmates.com. Sure you can join for free, but in order to send and receive messages you have to pay for a membership…or the other person does….at least one person must pay. A lot of people have registered on there for free, but they did not bother to pay for a membership because they don’t see the point. Why pay to talk to people you haven’t seen in 15 years…you still talk to you good friends and those others just fade away (as has been tradition for years as people grow and move).

Now, take a look at music. Sure, most people have illegally downloaded a free song or two. Some have illegaly downloaded TONS of free songs. And there are a very small minority of people who illegally download and NEVER pay for music. Most people don’t have a problem paying for digital downloads or buying CDs. Why? Because there has always been a cost to buying CDs…and some people like buying digital music because you can pay $1 for that one song you want instead of $20 for a whole CD that you aren’t going to enjoy. What about those that never pay? Well there are thieves that never pay for food or clothing. There will always be someone who steals.

The point I’m trying to make is that people don’t want to pay for something that was previously free. If there had always been a cost to use it, then people would be more willing to pay. But not when you add a cost to it.

Look at email as well. I have a few yahoo accounts…one is my personal email. Another is one I use when I sign up for anything so it gets the spam. Another is one I use while job hunting. I have three because they are free. If Yahoo were to start charging, I would simply use the email provided by my ISP or my college. I wouldn’t pay for an additional email and I’d just deal with the spam like everyone else.

[...] 19) I thought this was an interesting article about charging for journalism online, from the Neiman Journalism Lab called If They Won’t Pay For Facebook… [...]

[...] If they won’t pay for Facebook, they won’t pay for your city hall reporter: “these kids have complete faith in the availability of a substitute good — that is, [...]

[...] een uur tot anderhalf uur per dag op Facebook, maar geld hebben ze er niet voor over, blijkt uit recent onderzoek.  Toch wordt voor een dienst als iTunes wél betaald en goed ook (al is dat  vaak met de [...]