Blog post 9

There were two statements that stood out to me in the reading.  The first (page 7) stated, "In this sense, digital consumers are often no less materialistic than material consumers: the only difference is that their material has become digital."  This idea has actually been a recent issue in my own personal life.  It first came about when I started listening to Macklemore's new album The Heist, specifically the track named, "Wings" which is basically about Macklemore's relationship with a pair of shoes he had when it was a kid.  He talks about how this piece of merchandise held such high value in his life  that it took him years to realize that they were simply just shoes.  When it comes to the digitization of our economy I think we need to be very careful.  It is now normal for money to move back a forth without it ever being tangible; for instance, I receive a paycheck through direct deposit and then use my debit card to purchase something online.  That money has gone from my employer to me to a retail business without ever becoming physical currency (cash).  This can be related to the reading we did earlier in the week that focused on the market, equity and credit.  Since credit nowadays in purely digital, it has become quite easy to spend beyond your means and fall into debt.  Because all of this money is digital (or perhaps conceptual), the sense of losing is diminished.
The other statement that really rang true said, "from a consumer’s point of view, information goods are “experience goods”: that is, their value is derived from experiencing them and absorbing their content."  This also relates back the reading we did earlier this week.  As a class we discussed how information only holds value if there is an audience to put value on it.  It must be experienced in order for it to move from simply data to information that holds value.  Value is given by the audience, not necessarily by the creator.