Image by Martin LaBar via Flickr

Some people have a hard time being called a consumer or a user. I don’t have that problem.

I consume/I use

As human being it is essential to our survival (and I would even say our mental well being) to consume. Food, resources, time, money, electricity, etc.

I use your Web site for my own personal enjoyment/gain. I use the information you give me to make myself smarter and I probably won’t give anything back.

I’ll use your freemium service and probably never pay you a dime (even though most of the services I would pay for don’t charge). I read your blog and never click the adds.

I use Google search, mail, calendar, iGoogle, Google Reader, and everything else you throw out there (except Orkut) and never click on an ad.

I’ve never donated to Wikipedia. Have you?

Prosumer

We’ve even invented a new word for those of you who have issues with the reality of your consumption habits: Prosumer.

You think we created a hybrid word from producer and consumer but really all it means is professional consumer.

Prosumers consume phones, laptops and other geek toys like most people consume double venti late’s. (And don’t even get me started on how they consume those.)

Get Real

Many of you like to point out that you produce. You blog, Twitter, upload photo’s, video and life stream. Let’s get real. Do you know what being a 1% really means? It means that if you blog, comment, photo, video, life stream you’re still only producing 1% as much as you consume.

If you take offense to this post please see my previous post.

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