DISQUS

Anthony Farrior · 1 year ago

I agree 100% it's also like how Google and Apple are worth billions compared to GE or FORD, two companies that make and or touch our lives daily....

itsinsider · 1 year ago

I guess social media "targeting" is like the old advertising yarn, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Le plus ça change...

mathewi · 1 year ago

Just one quibble, Louis. As the father of a university-age daughter, those textbooks aren't just bought willingly -- in many cases, in fact, they are bought unwillingly. Students (and parents) buy them because they have to, despite the ridiculous prices involved. Not sure what that says about your analogy, but I think it says something about the value of a monopoly :-)

jeffsonstein · 1 year ago

guess I would argue that _all_ value assigned by humans is "perceived", none is "intrinsic"

awilensky · 1 year ago

Overall, it is a small and specialized constituency indeed that finds it compelling to adopt multiple social networks, or to spend real work or personal time on Facebook. There is no mission critical personal or professional use case, with the exception of the young adopters and techno elite.

We know that the advertising inventory on these services under performs sponsored search - so there. When will the real social paradigm break through that these services can add real life value to population at large? Maybe the younger generation that will grow into it as an alternative to the stale broadcast media that is run by my generational contemporaries.

However, the new and slick "social media" consultants", that are selling a bill of goods to brand managers are getting nowhere, and the customers are just starting to get wise.

arneper · 1 year ago

Good Post. My mom as an example gets staying conencted but, can't get her over the tech hurddle of having a computer! Hope the kids are doing great!

micahwittman · 1 year ago

Louis, you knew it was coming - you could sense a disturbance in the force in paragraph 4 ...

Amazonian Chief with Cellphone (in 2006):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68199403@N00/12104...

But your point still stands: the iPhone time-traveled back to 2006 would be futile since there was no mobile youtube until mid 2007. So touche back at me.