This week, Twitter officially became a publicly traded company, entering itself into the crazy roller coaster ride of rising and falling shares and hyped early valuations. While there’s still a healthy amount of caution and skepticism over Twitter’s initial numbers (which you very well might not care about in the slightest), one thing is certain: Some users feel very entitled to a cut of the potential billions.
And why not? Well, there’s a really good reason why not. Because we all willingly signed up for Twitter and made user names and enjoyed tweeting inanities with the full knowledge that we would not be paid for them. It’s the same deal we’ve (probably blindly, stupidly) made with all social networks. Here’s my data, free of charge, and in return, I get to use your platform as a personal billboard, advertising the most attractive assets of my life to my social circle! Is it fair? Probably not, but we’re clearly content to continue this setup.
Despite this agreement to fill Twitter with content for free, Time went ahead and made a fun app that takes your account to show you exactly how much the social network would owe you.
I’ve amassed more than 4,500 tweets since I started using the site, and it appears Twitter would only have to cut me a measly $154.
No sweat, Twitter. You can hold on to the that. Of course, some users – for example, Rihanna and Ashton Kutcher – are owed way, way more. Seriously. Way more.
Want to know how much you’re owed but will never ever get?! You can use Time’s plugin here and see for yourself.
