Free Quantifying Internet Gains To Consumers Critical Thinking Sample

It is correct that the advent of the internet has brought tremendous benefits to the consumers in various web platforms. The gains range from vital information that consumers are now able to extract instantly from the internet to the ease of connecting with friends and family. The internet has been a tool that saves so much time and resources that would have been used in its absence. Most of these benefits that people derive from the internet are priceless in terms of the impacts that they make in people’s lives.
Quantifying the gains that consumers derive from the use of the internet cannot be done accurately. It is easier to quantify gains that accrue companies like Google and Wikipedia in terms of the payments they receive for ads that are posted on their platforms. It is also relatively easier to quantify losses made by companies that sell products that can be substituted by the use of the internet; e.g. books, entertainment, etc. However, the gains by consumers who use the internet to make purchase decisions through comparison of prices in different stores, ordering items online and interacting with friends on Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. cannot be accurately quantified. Supposing the estimated cost of posting letters for an individual is $25 per annum in order to communicate with friends and relatives. The cost of communicating with them through e-mails, on the other hand, over the same duration, is only $10. In this case, $15 which the difference between using e-mail and postal letters is said to be the consumer surplus. It is a non-monetary benefit that accrues to the consumers. It is this consumer surplus that can be quantified although not accurately. Despite there being surpluses that can be quantified in estimates, there are also consumer losses that are realized through chunks of time spent online doing nothing productive.