Are Customers Really Upset at Netflix or is Internet Outrage Fake?
If you were to go on Netflix’s Facebook page this week, you would have been met with some 80,000 comments this week about the 60% price increase. These were almost all negative: customers voicing extreme outrage at Netflix for imposing a $6 a month increase for customers who still wanted DVD delivery.
In fact, it was almost a level of angry hysteria usually reserved to those who kill puppies for fun.
Twitter users en masse threatened to cancel their subscription, 6,000 of so people went to the Netflix blog and left comments comparing Netflix to everything from Voldmort, Hitler to even, may I say it… Rupert Murdoch.
It was clear that users were really quite upset that instead of paying $9.99 for both streaming and DVD delivery that they’d have to pay $15.98 for both. They seemed to be up in arms, ready to march, protest against this travesty. They were ready to storm the offices of Netflix to show their anger.
Or Not.
Despite all the claims of being “really, really” upset the reality seemed to be a far cry from what was said on Facebook, Twitter, Message Boards and Blogs.
That’s because the Internet, unlike the real world, allows anyone to easily voice their protest to anything they want. It doesn’t require them actually to think about what they are doing, but instead all they need to do is put in 140 characters or less how upset they are, add a hash tag and press a button.
People don't think about what they write on the internet anymore than they think about what is really in a McDonald's Hamburger.
The internet allows anyone to easily give a false sense of outrage, because they know that no one really is paying attention to what they are saying. It’s not that no one is reading it, but because of the sheer amount of complaints, comments, mentions and threats, most people have learned to believe that what is said online has no reflection in reality.
Exactly Zero people showed up at Netflix Corporate Headquarters to protest the price increase. That’s because at the end of the day, what people say online now doesn’t always reflect reality or people’s true feelings about a product.
It’s just too easy to be outraged on the internet.
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