Iarfhlaith Kelly - Code agus Craic

For as long as I can remember, businesses have deliberately attempted to confuse consumers by using over-complicated pricing plans that are hard to compare against the competition.

In today’s Ireland, this is especially true for mortgages, broadband and other telecoms services like mobile phone plans.

Have you ever tried to directly compare mortgage rates? It’s tough because many of them are measured in different ways (variable rate, fixed rate, tracker rate, LTV mortgages, etc.). Using different metrics makes it impossible to directly compare each product. The same goes for broadband. It’s hard to directly compare pricing plans.

But this isn’t going to last much longer.

The Game is Changing

There’s a shift in power that’s moving in favour of the consumer. It’s becoming easier for everyone to see through these deliberate attempts to confuse. Social tools have allowed us to become more organised, and more informed.

Comparison sites like Google’s Product Search, GoCompare (UK only) and PriceRunner (also UK only), are helping consumers make informed decisions that are no longer based on a glossy brochure or a smooth talking salesman. They’re based on the views of their piers and the community. They’re also based on cold hard facts.

It’s Already Happening

Recently, the major mobile service providers here in Ireland have had to launch simplified plans that are more flexible and are easier to compare to the competition. Pat Phelan has done a great job highlighting O2’s new Clear plans that have obviously been launched to counteract Threes new Relax plans.

The Best Value Will Win Out

The move to more transparent pricing models is great news for consumers. It will mean that we’ll always know who’s offering the best deal (on price or service) at any particular time.

This will force businesses to provide more competitive transparent prices instead of offering a set of confusing price plans designed to be hard to compare against the competition. In the end, the business providing the best value will win out.

And that’s great news for all of us.

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Last night I had dinner with my grandad. No particular occasion, which I think often makes for a more enjoyable evening anyway. As usual it was full of interesting conversation. We spoke on the impending referendum, cruising on the Shannon, his new publication on the history of St. Lukes Hospital, Ireland’s faltering competitiveness and also on the differences between today’s friendships and those of his generation when he was young.

Is Social Media Ruining Friendships?

This last point got me thinking about the impact that social media is having on modern day friendships. Having online friends (or friends online) makes it way too easy to put off visiting them in person. If all your friends are on Facebook or Bebo, and each of them is just a click away, does that reduce the incentive to pick up the phone, or call around for a brew? I think it does.

As for my grandad, he’s still in touch with many of his childhood friends. Only last week he corresponded with the guy he sat next to in primary school! He didn’t need technology to help him maintain this friendship over the years, yet he’s managed to keep it up all the same. He’s never used technology to stay in touch with his friends, yet he’s always been great at it. And I think the reason is because he had no other choice. Our generation however are not so lucky.

Too Easy To Stay In Touch

Having all your friends just a click away, promotes lazy friendships. It’s too easy to contact them only when you need something and then to ignore them the rest of the time. Because they’re always online, there’s no risk of losing touch.

Now I’m not talking about your closest friends, the ones you’ll see all the time anyway. I’m talking about the ones you went to school with and who you grew up with, the ones you no longer see on a daily basis. These are the friends that slip through the cracks. Neither of you want to lose touch but somehow it just ends up that way.

Social networks are supposed to help us with this problem but instead I think they achieve the opposite. Having a friend in my list of connections, dropping them a funny story or interesting comment every once in a while is a shadow of the relationship that it would be had I spent that time with them in a more engaging way.

The Limits of Technology

Technology may be able to tell me when they’re online and what they had for breakfast that morning, but it won’t help to maintain my friendship with them on any real level. For that, you’ve got to go meet with them face-to-face just like when my Grandad was a young man. But it’s easier for him, he doesn’t know any different. Making friends, and keeping them has always needed deliberate effort by both parties. With online social tools, the need for that effort is much smaller and my concern is that since more and more of my friends are now just a click away. It’ll be too easy to just drop them a text or a twitter instead of actually meeting up and building on the friendship.