The Hidden Cost of Being Connected in the Age of AI
How Big Tech Turned Your Data into a Digital Goldmine, but paying you in fools gold
It was one of those moments that sticks with you, not because it was particularly profound, but because of the weight of the ignorance I had to confront. The “mentor,” someone I was assigned to as part of the accelerator program, was offering advice as if it were gospel.
“What do you mean you’re not offering a freemium?” he asked, his voice laced with that faux-privileged tone of authority, the kind people use when they think they’re saying something revolutionary. “You have to give people an opportunity to use your product for free! Nobody’s going to pay for your product this early. You’ve got to give it away — think Meta, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. These are all platforms that are free, and billions of people use them.”
I sat back, letting his words linger in the space between us. It was as if he couldn’t hear how ridiculous it all sounded. Free. That word, so deceptively simple, so full of promise. But nothing is ever free — not really. And certainly not in this digital age, where every click, every post, every scroll comes with a price tag most folks aren’t even aware of.
He went on, oblivious to the storm that was brewing in my mind. “These companies make their money off premium…
