The Economy of Likes

Imagine we'd pay a cent for every ?? we give,

Imagine we'd get a cent for every ?? we receive...

- How would social-media look?

- How would the economy change?

I had a talk with a friend; he is always involved in several projects, helps them come into being and take shape. he also helps people around him achieve clarity and find direction, yet he is struggling financially.

This is because we have what Dan Ariely calls the pain of paying. we may appreciate an article we read and spend an hour reading it, but if we had to pay even a small amount to read, it would probably block us from doing so even if the amount would (in retrospect) be insignificant compared to its value.

There is another reason which he discusses: Paying money makes the exchange seem less authentic, it's the dichotomy of heart vs wallet.

The third factor is the ambiguity of pricing, imagine that at the bottom of an article you liked you'd have an option to pay as much as the article contributed to your life. This option will probably be so confusing no one will use it, how can you put a monetary value on how funny a joke was, on how thought-provoking the article was? and if you pay for it chances are you will at some point regret it, perhaps thinking it wasn't as funny/ interesting as you thought.

As an end result, the world is full of starving artists, people who contribute to the world but are financially on the butterless side of the bread.

We all could use some nudge to overcome this barrier. which is where my idea comes into play.

Don't be alarmed, this is just a thought experiment...

Imagine...

Imagine you will have a nano wallet containing two Dollars/ Euro/ whatever.

You could use this to pay for what you 'like': the instance you press ??, a nano-amount is taken out of our account and given to the author. The pain you would feel will be as small as stepping on a grain of dust or having one less pea for lunch.

Still, you would probably treat this ?? or re-tweet in a bit more meaningful manner, you'd spend a second considering whether you 'really like' it, or are you pressing it automatically.

The author, however, will feel much more respected. since the appreciation for the content shared is more explicit.

Media would get cleaner, driving content ever-so-slightly to better quality and authenticity, reducing hate-posts, etc.

Humanity will get a chance to practice generosity, driving an economy based on abundance instead of scarcity. etc.

In the long run, we might even see Like and Money as two separate axes, and not as two sides of a spectrum.

Or...

It would be used to manipulate world-views even more by the power of money.

Or...

It would block all social interaction.

Or... or what?

This is just a thought experiment.

To implement this, one would have to consider lots of social and usability aspects.

But first, how do you see the world changing with such an experiment?