Nothing is free

What I mean by saying „Nothing is free“: when someone promises you something for #free, its a straight lie. There is ALWAYS something that is wanted in return! Just to clear things up: free things do exist! For Example Air. It’s free, everywhere. As long as you breath it yourself.

The recent craze in #cryptocurrency is what got me thinking to write this. As someone who has followed the topic for almost ten years now, I feel it’s getting out of hand. I’v never seen this much bullshit, scams, false promises and just plain stupidity for a while. Well except for the gaming industry…

Let’s go back a while!

Do you remember when there was no google? When Yahoo listed website in chronological order? Bam. Put a 01 in front your of Website title and you’d be Nr. 1 in the ranks. When it was actually faster to put a video on a physical device and ride your bike to your friends to give it to them then sending it through the net? It was fantastic. Not one TV or print Ad with a domain name in it.
It was fun surfing the net, you didn’t care about the speed. Not yet at least. You would slowly find your way into the belly of the virtual beast, the web. It was fun to watch it grow, and with it, its two largest contributors: Scammers & Porn.

So, even in its early stages scamming became huge. I mean people scam with faxes, phones, and every other possible way of communication.

It’s free! Only for you! Claim your reward!

Yeah!
To this day I do not understand how one can be stupid enough to accept this as being true! Let’s just look at it from my angle:

If it’s for #free, why do you have to do something for it? This fact alone should make you stop and think it over.
Why is there so much additional Information I have to read? If it’s #free, it can’t have restrictions.

Have we accepted a new definition for the word „free“? Are we so used to this that we don’t care anymore? As long as something is free we will do anything for it? Most of us will. Why? Most People don’t understand the technology they use and therefor what it’s capable of. This leads to the conclusion that they cannot have an idea of what the worth of their doing is. Let me ellaborate:

I once observed a marketing gig from a mustard company. They put up a hotdog stand and a sign that said 1 free Hotdog. I immediately stopped to check it out. Just as I thought, a lot of started to line up and the little guy making the hotdogs didn’t really seem to care about the huge line that was quickly extending around the block. These #people were willing to stand in line for up to 45 minutes for a „free hot dog“. So let’s say a Hotdog costs 2,50$. If you are available for that kind of salary, please don’t hesitate to contact me immediately!

I see #people buying three gallons of milk just to get the 4th gallon for free. People transfer money to the alleged son of the daughter of the sister of the wive of the recently deceased king Obomwelakhelosa in some rural town on a continent far far away so they can can it back tenfold.

The #people waiting in line for their free hotdog, didn’t realize they were staring at mustard advertisements for the entire time. Dudes branded Hotdogs costumes dancing around giving out mustard samples. Signs everywhere. Balloons. Man, these people were getting penetrated with this mustard brand and nobody was catching on. Because if they reached the front of the line they would get a hotdog. Well, almost all of them. Whatever Agency came up with this didn’t think to resupply the little hot dog guy with new buns and hot dogs…

Time is money. Attention is money. Continued, focused Attention is gold.
Information is money. Data is Money. Continued, focused Data is gold.

See where I’m getting at? In todays #life you get both. Cause you ain’t gettin that hotdog without logging in with the special hotdog app, and sharing your location with the rest of the hotdog world! And hey, if you go and promote those free hot dog events, we’ll give you a nice badge for your profiles so everybody can know that you spend your free time working for us!

Nothing is free!

You will pay for it some way or the other. Wether it’ll be your time your data, your communication, your effort, your intellect or a combination of the aforementioned.
Try to remember the times in your #Life when your very best friends gave you something for free without wanting something in return. If this happens to you on a daily basis, let me know how you do it!
Yeah, for most people this doesn’t happen very often, for some never.
So don’t you think you should get suspicious when this happens to you everyday?

No matter if its free #cryptocurrency, fiat, cars, planes, island, mattresses, motorcycles, a house or whatever someone is promising you. 99,9999999999999999999999999999999% it ain’t free!

slowdown picture - daniel-monteiro, other images ©monkebrain