I was surprised when I went to send a Facebook message to someone who isn’t on my “friends” list and saw the following:
Either pay a dollar and get my message delivered, or let it languish in some “other” folder. What would you do?
I chose the latter: I sent the message and then quickly found, for the first time, my own “other” folder. I sifted through the various spam messages to see if there was anything of importance hidden in there (there was.)
Though this test by Facebook to charge for messages sent to “strangers” is said to be an attempt to keep mailboxes free of spam, it does feel more like a way to make a quick dollar from its users. And, by charging users even more—up to $15 —to message celebrities, this could potentially be a somewhat lucrative endeavor for Facebook.
But for us “regular people,” if Facebook were truly interested in keeping spam out of our mailbox, wouldn’t any charge be able to stop a spambot in its tracks? Why not $.05 instead of $1.00? I also dislike that Facebook is somehow deciding the “value” of each message based on how popular the recipient is.
Though, even if you never spend a penny on a Facebook message, take my advice and check your “other” folder from time to time. There may just be something in there you really want to read. –Christina
Find out more about Facebook’s plan to charge for messages in this article on BuzzFeed.
