The Real Cost of 'Free': Why Transparent Pricing Models Matter in Social Media
You get home and are doing your once-weekly check of your mailbox. Instead of just an envelope from that one service that still hasn’t registered your “email only” preference and two junk mailers, there’s also an unexpected package. Inside is a sleek, high-tech gadget, no price tag, no receipt, just a note saying, "Have fun, it's free!"
So what’s the catch, Pepe Silvia? Nothing valuable really shows up for free.
Somehow, though, when it comes to social media, we convinced ourselves that rule doesn't apply. But the past few years have given us more than enough examples of why it definitely applies, and why we need to make some major changes.
The Illusion of Free
Alright, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. But let's actually think about what this means in practical terms in today’s online world.
When Instagram shows you a bunch of ads for shoes after you casually mentioned sneakers to your friend…
When your feed suddenly fills with content designed to keep you scrolling for hours, even when you’d rather be doing something else…
When platforms deliberately engineer addictive features that harm our mental health…
That’s all the cost of “free”.
The oligarchs at Meta, TikTok, and Twitter (yeah, I said Twitter, he’ll get over it) aren't in the charity business. They're selling your attention and data at an industrial scale. You’re the product.
The Hidden Invoice
Here's what "free" social media actually costs:
Your privacy – Companies track your behavior across the entire internet, building detailed profiles that know more about your habits than your partner does.
Your attention – Numbers vary, but the general consensus is that the average person spends 2+ hours daily on social media. That means 730 hours – one full month! – per year.
Your mental wellbeing – Studies consistently show correlations between heavy social media use and increased anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation.
Your agency – Algorithms are designed to manipulate your emotions and behavior, not serve your best interests.
Your democracy – Cambridge Analytica and foreign interference were the appetizers; all of this * gestures around at the state of the world * is being actively impacted by surveillance capitalism.
This isn't hyperbole, it's the business model. And they’ve tried to convince us all that it’s the only one that works.
A Different Way Forward
But while that might have been true back in 2010, the abuses around that “free” system have changed the general environment. Millions of people around the globe are ready for a different way of doing things, a different way of existing online.
That’s why at Sunslider we’re creating a more honest approach, offering our users a clear choice:
Pay with money OR Pay with (limited) attention
Whatever you choose, you’ll always know exactly what you're paying with and how much it costs.
This is how those two options will work:
A straightforward subscription (around $15-20 annually) for a 100% ad-free experience.
An ad-supported version that respects your privacy – we'll use minimal information you explicitly share with us, as well as activity within Sunslider (and only within Sunslider). That’s it. No following you around the internet. No psychological manipulation. No building shadow profiles. No working with ad aggregators that demand as much data as possible in an eternal quest to maximize profits.
Unlike the data harvesters, we're not trying to extract maximum value from every user. We're trying to build a sustainable platform where the incentives of the company align with the wellbeing of the community.
Transparency Changes Everything
The problem with "free" isn't just the hidden costs – it's that those costs are deliberately obscured. When you can't see the price tag, you can't make informed choices.
That's why we're committed to publishing annual reports detailing our finances, company structure, and decision-making – even though we aren’t obligated to as a private company. When you know where your money is going and why, you can hold us accountable.
That sounds radical in today's tech landscape. It shouldn't be.
User Choice is the Future
Facts matter. We're more than a bunch of data points. The oligarchs don't own us.
So let's stop pretending that "free" social media is actually free. Let's acknowledge the real costs and make conscious choices about what we're willing to pay – and how.
At Sunslider, we're building something different: a platform where you decide the terms of the exchange, where the value flows both ways, and where we can look you in the eye and tell you exactly what you're getting for your money (or your attention).
Because the platform that respects you enough to be honest about its business model can grow responsibly, remaining a platform that will respect you in all the other ways that matter.