Comments on: Meme patrol: “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.”

By: Bocados de Actualidad (147º) | Versvs

Bocados de Actualidad (147º) | Versvs — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:56:16 +0000

[...] En 2008 nos leímos The Future of the Internet (and how to stop it) de Jonathan Zittrain, mucho tiempo después se ha extendido como un «meme» aquello de «no eres el usuario, eres el producto» y muchos ponen el origen del mismo precisamente en Zittrain, algo que él aclara en su blog. Léelo completo en Future of the Internet [...]

By: Michael Byrne

Michael Byrne — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:57:40 +0000

I distinctly remember this from my first marketing class at Wharton/Penn in 1981. The professor used the example of TV and who was the customer, what was the product. Eyeballs. You were the product. I also remember that the point was definitely not a new thought to me because of all I had read previously.

I am sure that if you did a search on Peter Drucker’s body of work, he probably made this observation in the 1950s. And people actually in that business, whether it is TV or ad-supported search, olde-tymey newspapers, or whatever, already have mastered the understanding of this concept.

I think the Reagan and Burroughs quotes speak to different points.

Just as an idea is not copyrightable, but the expression of it is, you should just take credit for what you said, your quote is more succinct than blue beetle’s, so take credit for the original expression, even if the idea is not original.

But, something more original and insightful would be:
“Online, even when you’re a paying customer, you’re still the product.”

And you can quote me on that.

By: Barry Shein

Barry Shein — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:50:16 +0000

P.S. “Junk” is slang for “heroin”.

By: Barry Shein

Barry Shein — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:25:40 +0000

I believe the following quote from William S Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch” (1959) is very closely related:

“The junk merchant doesn’t sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client.”

By: Debra F. Cole

Debra F. Cole — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:43:50 +0000

Trying to add your feed to FB and Twitter and Google.

Also, set-up another FB page, and can not seem to get it shown, and it is for TWO Non For Profit Foundations, which I am in the Process of setting up. One for Animal Abuse/Cancer and the other is for Domestic Violence.

BTW, I would love to speak to you, regarding both Foundations, for IP Rights as well as I spoke to the ABA, about the 20/20 up coming Seminar…thought you might be interested.

I am not a Lawyer, but do believe in Justice. You might be interested in the Book my Sister wrote, “The Cult of Terrorism,” Dr. Alyson Manda Cole; as well as he Husband Book, under Dr. Oz Frankel.

Let me know if you can help, with figuring this out, I am not IT savey.

Cheers,

Debra F. Cole

PS: If you send me an encrypted e-mail, I will send you mine with my phone number. /;-)

By: Jack Lerner

Jack Lerner — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:07:28 +0000

I remember Noam Chomsky saying this back in the early 1990s about television advertising.

By: Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:44:15 +0000

Yes, that was me that said it on Metafilter. I wasn’t quoting anyone directly, but merely restating a fairly common sentiment, and for some reason the Internet seems to have picked it up and ran with it.

By: infinitebuffalo

infinitebuffalo — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:41:28 +0000

coming full circle: http://mefi.us/t/21570

By: Richard Smith

Richard Smith — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:33:33 +0000

If you want to get all academic about it, there was an article back in the early 1980s by Dallas Smythe, a Communication professor at Simon Fraser University (he was, earlier in his career, at the FCC in Washington). He wrote about the audience as a commodity. Dallas W. Smythe, “On the audience commodity and its work.” In Dependency Road: Communications, Capitalism, Consciousness, and Canada, pp. 22–51. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1981.

By: Meme patrol: “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.” | what is the internet | the internet | internet news

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:56:57 +0000

[...] Meme patrol: “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.” [...]