In these days you can do a lot of things for free. Legally . No need to buy a newspaper- you can read it for free (some papers are changing to subscriptions only , but often you can still get some free articles - or choose a different one). No need to pay for a cinema ticket : movies are cheap and if you subscribe for very little you can get many films for a very small price . You can also find plenty of free entertainment online on platforms such as YouTube , Vimeo .. no need to buy cds : Spotify has all the music you want , for free . You can also just listen to very informative stories or fun chats on various podcasts platforms . You can get workouts for free and yoga classes for free, on YouTube or on the many apps which have a free version. If you buy something online , for much cheaper than in shop , you get free deliveries and free returns . We are expecting to get work and get paid and pay nothing in return.
It seems counterintuitive, yet it's the reality. And I am not judging from above. I am like everybody else. I do all of the above - and I don’t see the point in premium subscriptions.. Yet I complain about the advertisements being so targeted (actually only on some platforms) or about the very obvious sponsorships of products on blogs and podcasts . I mean, being also on the other side, writing here, I understand those who need sponsors. Sometimes I also do collaborate with brands, getting something from them to try and writing some honest review about it. I am thankful I don’t have to live with that , so I can keep being as free as I want and writing as honestly as I like and being very choosy about who I collaborate with - helping small scale entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world. Again, I am not making a living and have major respect for those who manage to do it without compromising too much, and understand those that have to compromise. We are in these weird times of a 'free economy' , two words that don’t really belong together, so there must be something in there that makes it not free after all. Someone must be paying. And I think the answer is that we are all paying somehow . Collectively. Paying with loss of freedom of information, freedom of speech, privacy issues. We are paying with being convinced that we need to consume. And at the same time we are struggling to make a living. We cannot be employed full time if companies are unsure, so we have the 'gig economy' and so the circle keep going. Maybe I will get a hardcopy of a paper next, and buy that song track that I really like (if I am sure money will get to the artist and the producer), and give money through things like 'buy me a coffee' or 'patreon' to my favourite podcasts .. Let's try to break free by choosing to pay,
2 Comments
paola
9/26/2020 09:02:07 am
pris de Libé Culture (Libération) du 25.02
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Zureyma
9/29/2020 02:39:54 pm
This is so important. I myself have been trying to break free from the need to consume consume consume. Now that I’ve created some space and built up some checkpoint that will keep me from leaning into that shopaholic tendency, it seems crazy to me that it used to be normal to buy new things each season. Whether it was clothes, shoes or decor, like why wasn’t the stuff I had used the year before ever enough?! I feel so liberated now, not feeling that pressure!
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