On campus many years ago, someone was handing out bags of free stuff. I politely declined the lady and she looked at me like I was crazy. “But it’s free?”
For some reason I still remember the look of confusion on her face. Nearly 20 years later, I think “free” has been so conceptually abused that it has negative appeal. Connotations of “how else will I end up paying for this?” or “how will I feel after storing this cheap junk and ultimately throwing it away?” are what I think about when someone offers me “free”.
Free local newspapers were also commonplace where I grew up. I don’t think most people ever read them, perhaps in part because they were free.
Where I live, we have a couple of free newspapers that are legitimately the most read newspapers in the area. They do actual and excellent reporting of local things -- something the commercial "local" paper doesn't do. Also, if you want to know what's available in terms of local events and other things to do, those papers are the best way to do that.
There's a large difference between a thing that is always given at no cost (in money or in data), versus a thing that usually has a cost but is being offered "for free". The former doesn't raise red flags to me, the latter does.
For some reason I still remember the look of confusion on her face. Nearly 20 years later, I think “free” has been so conceptually abused that it has negative appeal. Connotations of “how else will I end up paying for this?” or “how will I feel after storing this cheap junk and ultimately throwing it away?” are what I think about when someone offers me “free”.
Free local newspapers were also commonplace where I grew up. I don’t think most people ever read them, perhaps in part because they were free.