When things are cheap, free (or easily nicked), and available in seemingly endless quantities and varieties, it seems to trigger a hoarding reflex.
The Internet is an Aladdin's cave of free and "free" stuff. Not surprisingly, there are hoarders. They download more movies than they will ever watch, more fonts than all the ransom notes in the world will ever need, more clip art, more stock photos, animal sounds, screensavers and so on.
Flow on effects:
- Does this desensitise people to quality?
- Does it stop people really savouring and appreciating something?
- What does over-feeding a "more is always better" attitude do to a person's approach to other aspects of his/her life?
- Does the availability of downloadable movies significantly increases the demand for hard disk drives?
- Is this encouraging more people to create and give away stuff (for the validation)?
- Or is it discouraging people from sharing and making stuff due to the diminished returns?