In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, there was an article about how new internet companies are a poor investment:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124784696163158721.html

All the big players have huge audiences and some have proven they can keep traffic coming back for more.  The only problem is that none of them make money.  As an internet user who never views an ad courtesy of Adblock Plus on Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865), I wonder if we’re witnessing the emergence of another “bubble” in the form of hyped but unprofitable internet applications.

I really wonder about Twitter. You can follow 100 people and never look at a single update from any of them.  Some people are in the business of gaining followers just to have more than the next guy even though nobody cares about their tweets.

Would you be willing to pay for the benefits of social media?  If so, how much?  I would bet that most people use social media because it’s fun and free, and would disappear in a paid arrangement.