If you've read any of the literature on behavioural economics, you know that of all the price points in the world, the weirdest one is "free." When a service or object is free, we humans don't really know what to make of it. It's hard for us to understand what it's worth and it's hard for us to understand what it costs. Because we're used thinking in terms of money, we're thrown off by "free." Platforms like Facebook and Google have taken advantage of this behavioural quirk. They've priced their services – search, social platforms, messaging, maps, email and all the rest of it – at the enticing point of "zero," and left us to try and understand what they really cost and what they're really worth. This has made it very hard for competitors to break into the market – when something is free to consumers, it's hard to undercut – and it has made it hard for us all to accept the very real cost/benefit trade-offs these services impose on us, because they're hidden behind a blank price tag. There are ways out of this mess, but they're not easy. – Felicity Duncan

Why free is too high a price for Facebook and Google

By Christopher Mims

(The Wall Street Journal) Over the past two years, Facebook and Google have taken fire for their roles in everything from eroding democratic institutions to damaging mental health to undermining our collective immunity to preventable diseases.

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